Cyber Riders
by MadeInNowhere
Summary: A new Sonic story set in the far future which features our heroes as cops at Green Hill Police Department. In this world, a majority of the population have cybernetic implants to give them unique abilities. So what happens when Sonic and his friends are forced to follow suit if they want to keep up with the rest of the world? Read and review. Please, no flames.
1. First Day On The Job

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sonic or any of its characters. All rights go to SEGA and... eh, you all know the drill by now.**

 **So, here it is! The winner of the poll that I put up, which you might notice has been taken down by the time this chapter is posted, was Cyber Riders, by quite a surprisingly large margin. I honestly wasn't expecting this one to be the top pick, but I'm glad that it happened anyway. I want to say thank you to everyone who voted, even if your choice wasn't the one that got the most votes overall.**

 **Anyhow, this story will be different to my Fast Times series. It will be a lot more comedic, for one thing, and will hopefully have more of a buddy-cop feel to it, and it won't take place in the same universe as Fast Times does, but it might contain some elements from it. For one thing, it takes place in more of a cyberpunk setting, and is a lot more futuristic. It will also have a lot more action and violence. Not necessarily bloody violence, but that could happen.**

 **So, with that said, let's get started! I hope that you all enjoy.**

* * *

A phone alarm buzzed, having the sound of a rooster cawing out an annoying cock-a-doodle-do which earned ire from the owner of said phone, who sat up, reached over to the phone, and turned it off.

"Five more minutes..." a male voice mumbled gruffly. Sadly, he wasn't going to get those five more minutes. Or even five more seconds, as a rock song played for his ringtone. "Could you get that, babe?" he complained. After receiving no reply for a few moments, he reached his hand to the other side of his bed. "Shade? Baby?"

"I'm in the bathroom, baby!" a feminine voice sounded from across the other end of the room.

Knuckles smiled and reached over to his phone, seeing the picture of a blue hedgehog flashing a peace sign before answering. "Yeah, Knuckles here. What's up, blue?"

"Just making sure that you're awake," Sonic smiled. "You didn't get too hammered last night, did you?"

"Uh... maybe?" Knuckles said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What's the time?"

"It's almost 10:00 am, dude. You've got to get your ass moving. The big meeting is going to start in half an hour."

"Big meeting?" Knuckles moaned. "What are you talking about?"

"Today's our first day, man!" Tails said excitedly, his voice loud enough to be heard through the phone.

"All right, relax, fox boy," Knuckles said, getting out of his bed as the sound of the bathroom flushing was heard. "I'll be on my way soon."

"You'd better hurry up," Sonic warned. "Traffic's been a bitch all morning."

"I'll be there," the echidna slightly growled. "See you when I get there, okay?"

"See you."

With that, both Sonic and Knuckles hung up and the echidna tossed his phone onto his bed as Shade walked out from the bathroom, drying her hands after cleaning them. "Who was it?" she asked.

"That was the guys," Knuckles replied. "Apparently, there's some big meeting going on soon, and I've got to move quick."

"Well, you do know how big today is, right?" Shade said in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, I know," Knuckles said, slightly exasperated. "It's the first day at-" He then froze as his eyes widened. "Oh, fuck..."

He quickly darted around the room to the closet where his clothes were, finding a black pair of boxers settling on a pair of comfortable black jeans, dark grey sneakers, a red tank top, and a brown jacket to go with them, thanking his lucky stars that the Green Hill Police Department uniform wasn't going to be given to him or his friends just yet.

"Let's see," he said, checking around the room. "Wallet... keys... phone... got them all..." He looked concerned. "There is something missing..."

"Maybe your gun?" Shade suggested, now dressed in a black t-shirt with a pink spider design on it and some grey shorts whilst she used a headband to push her hair back.

"No, we're supposed to get new ones," Knuckles said. "We all had to give the ones that we got from the academy back."

Shade pursed her lips in thought. "Coffee in a thermos, maybe? Because I put that on ten minutes ago. You should be fine for your drive up to the station."

"Nah, that's not it either..." Knuckles said. He then grinned and zipped over to her, kissing her lips, causing her to giggle and kiss back.

"Good luck today," Shade spoke. "Go out there and kick some ass."

"You too," her red counterpart replied. "How far along are you at your kickboxing class?"

"Working my way up to a blue belt, so I'm about the halfway point," she giggled.

"You're so lucky that your classes don't start until 1:00 pm," Knuckles said. "Being a cop is hard work."

"Spoke like somebody who isn't truly a cop yet," Shade said.

"Well, I passed the academy with the others, I've fired a gun, I've saved people, and I got drunk celebrating with the girl of my dreams," he smiled. "What could I possibly be missing?"

"How about coming back to your girl in one piece?" she suggested.

He smiled and kissed her lips again. "That I can do easily. I'll be fine, baby."

"Good to hear," she smiled. "Now, go! You've got to move, or you'll be fired before even getting there!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Knuckles replied, sitting up from the bed and walking to the bedroom door before heading to the kitchen to grab his coffee.

Shade stood at the doorway of their bedroom with her arms folded, smiling as she saw him walking over to the front door. "I love you," she said.

"I love you too," he replied, closing the door and sighing. "Ah... well then, let's get started..." He walked over to his car, hopped over into the driver's seat, and turned on the ignition, starting his drive.

 **At Green Hill Police Station...**

Several people were seated around a large, spherical glass table, with some seats still empty. At the back of the room was a large television screen, and sat around the table were several Mobians while a young mongoose with yellow fur, black hair, and wearing a dark grey business suit complete with brown dress shoes, stood in front of the large screen, pointing a remote at it.

"These, ladies and gentlemen, are our newest recruits," he said, pressing a button on the remote to cause four pictures to pop up on screen, with names, bios, and other trivia appearing next to them. "From left to right we have Sonic the hedgehog, Tails the fox, Knuckles the echidna, and Shadow the hedgehog."

"What makes these four so special?" a female lynx asked.

"I'm so glad that you asked, Nicole," said Ash, turning his attention back to the screen. "Let's start with Sonic. 22 years old. Charismatic, a good leader, and passed the obstacle courses in record timing, specifically those pertaining to speed. He was a track and field runner in high school, even earning a chance at the Olympics at one point, but he turned it down to focus on his training at the academy. He's also cocky, brash, and can be arrogant, but considering how well he's done, it's easy to see why he's such a top pick." He pressed the remote again, and it focused on Tails. "Our next entrant, Tails the fox. At only 20 years of age, he's the youngest of the group, but he has intelligence wise beyond his years."

"How can someone that small be that smart?" asked a gruff voice.

Ash turned to see a male gorilla, dressed in old, dark green military attire that had several awards and recommendations over the left breast. "I'm so glad you asked, Simian. To answer your question, think Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking put together."

"That's... pretty impressive," the gorilla said. "But that doesn't change that he's not the strongest fighter."

"With all due respect, sir, I am the one running the presentation," Ash said, getting a bit aggravated. "Of course, he's not the best fighter. But he's the smartest. During our bomb test drill, he was the only one to have both stopped the bomb and rescued the civilians. Others either chose one or the other, either not being smart enough to deactivate the bomb, or not quick enough to save all of the people."

"The bombs were filled with paint and the people were test dummies with wigs and makeup," said a large bear, wearing a fancy black police uniform with the initials G.H.P.D. over the left breast of the suit. Under that were several badges and medals, much like with Simian's suit. "That doesn't make fluffy there a worthy candidate in my book, no matter how well he did."

"How about the fact that he beat your old record to go with it, Commissioner?" Ash said, unable to hide his grin. Yes, Avery was the head honcho of G.H.P.D., but that didn't mean that Ash couldn't have some fun. He shrugged his smirk off and pressed the remote once more. "Anyway, onto the next one: Knuckles the echidna. 23, being just a few months older than Sonic, Knuckles is the best fighter we have. He trained as an amateur boxer, and even had a brief run in some pro fights, finishing with a record of 6-0 before the Academy came calling. And, by the way, he finished all of his fights in the first round, and half of those in the first minute. This would lead to even more success at Green Hill Academy, where he passed every martial arts test we threw at him."

"Finally, we have someone that can actually fight," Simian grinned. "This'll be good..."

"Not as good as our final entry," said Ash, pressing the remote again. "Shadow the hedgehog. The oldest member at 26, we don't know much about him, and he's not the biggest talker. All we know besides his age is that he currently lives with a human woman named Maria, also 26, who looks after him."

"Not to sound racist here," said a female wolf named Lupe, wearing a slightly more feminine variant of the usual Green Hill uniform, "but why would a human be living with a Mobian?"

"Apparently, they're childhood friends. From what I understand, neither of them got on too well with their own, so they fond each other at a young age and haven't looked back since," Ash shrugged.

"How did you get this info? I thought Shadow wasn't the talky type," Simian said.

"Mostly from Maria herself. She wasn't much of a talker either, but she soon eased into it," Ash replied, answering the gorilla's question. "Anyway, back to Shadow. While we don't know much about him, we do know that he did have something of a criminal record during his adolescence, but mostly just for stealing food or money. There was one account of aggravated assault on an officer, but said officer was really not a nice person from what I heard. He didn't like the idea of Mobians and humans being together. After seeing the error of his ways, he got a job and saved up enough to get to Green Hill, and the rest is pretty much history."

"How does he get on with the others?" asked Nicole.

"Not too well. As I mentioned, Maria's been helping Shadow out of his shell, but he distances himself a lot. He's very focused on what he wants to do, and it seems he just wants to get over his old life," the yellow mongoose shrugged. "He met the others at the Academy, and he... well, he tolerates them. I guess that would be the best way to describe it."

"What about his final tests at the academy?" Avery asked.

"Ah, right. I knew I was forgetting something," Ash said, silently thanking his leader. "Truth be told, he aced pretty much everything, much like the others. But also like the others, he had his speciality; shooting. All of his gun related tests are the most accurate I've ever seen. There was even a time during the sniping test where he made what we've dubbed the Zaytsev shot."

Ash then pressed another button on the remote, and the screen popped up, clearly showing a sidelong view where Shadow could just about be seen in the top left with a sniper rifle, and in the bottom right were three crash test dummies. Two were dressed up as criminals, completely with balaclavas and knives, and the third was the victim of said crime, dressed in a wig and a pink sweater, and one of the criminals held her purse. Shadow pulled the trigger on one of the thieves, causing the dummy to fall. The other was attached to a conveyor belt on the ground, and was moving quickly, hiding behind some sheet metal as cover.

"Looks like you missed your shot, Shadow," said a voice over the hedgehog's earpiece.

"Who was that?" asked Simian.

"Sonic," Ash replied.

Instead of replied, Shadow kept his focus on the sheet metal, and saw a small hole in the side of it. He then turned more to his left, seeing another dummy that he had shot earlier, but was still stood up as part of the test. He took a deep breath and fired at the side of the standing dummy's head, hitting the right angle and causing the bullet to zip to its right, sliding through the small hole and hitting the dummy in its left temple.

"Huh. I take that back," Sonic's voice said. "Good job, buddy."

"Thanks," Shadow said.

Ash turned off the recording, the screen bringing up Shadow's picture again. "See? Told you he was good."

"Damn..." said Nicole. "Not just the shot itself, but the distance too..."

"100 feet away," said Ash. "Those final tests are often the most difficult, but he made it look so easy, even on the most difficult shot."

"Is the ricochet normally part of the test?" asked Simian.

"Nope. He was pretty much just showing off with that." Ash then switched off the presentation. "And with that we have," He paused to check his watch. "about five minutes left. They should be here soon."

 **Outside the department...**

Sonic, Shadow, and Tails all waited outside the front of what they were hoping would be their workplace. Shadow sported a black leather jacket over a dark blue polo t-shirt, with blue jeans and black combat boots. Sonic had a teal blue underwear shirt on with white sleeves, and a design of several birds could be seen going diagonally from his left shoulder down to his right hip. He wore this with blue jeans of his own, and black trainers. Tails wore a dark green hoodie with a large orange stripe across the stomach, and had baggy black track pants and white trainers.

The blue hedgehog checked his watch. "Only a few minutes left. We're going to miss it."

Tails nodded. "Let's go inside. At least that way they might believe that we were actually here this whole time."

"It's like I mentioned to Knuckles, traffic's been horrible all morning," Sonic shrugged.

"Something tells me that they aren't going to buy that as an excuse," said Shadow as they walked to the station proper.

"Well, it's the best we've got right now," Sonic replied.

The rest of the walk was silent, and they entered the double doors of the station. Whilst the outside was a polished silver with some blue tinges here and there, with the initials G.H.P.D. glowing a turquoise blue against a black framed sign, the inside was a lot bigger. That same turquoise colour lined the outsides of all the doors, which were all metallic and shining silver, with the pitch black carpet contrasting the bright colours of the interior of the building.

Before they had more chances to look around, a Mobian in the station's uniform took notice of them. "You the new guys?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's us," Sonic replied.

"You'd better get upstairs. You're going to be late."

"We're aware..." Shadow mumbled.

Sonic sighed in apology for his friend. "Which floor?"

"The third. Follow me," he said. "I'll take you to the elevator."

"Thank you so much," said Sonic, looking over the Mobian's profile, noticing his scaly purple skin and the yellow horn protruding from where his nose would be. "You new here too?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"Been working here for about half a year now," the chameleon replied. "Name's Espio."

"Espio..." Tails said. "Oh, yeah! I've heard about you! You're one of the first Mobians to get a cybernetic implant!"

"One of the first successes, anyway," Espio shrugged. "A lot of the guys that came before me didn't do so well."

"So, what does your implant allow you to do?" Sonic asked, curiosity staining his tone.

Espio turned to face Sonic, grinned, then suddenly became invisible before speaking. "I can camouflage myself to become a part of the environment around me. It's very useful for stealth missions."

"I can imagine," Sonic smiled as the elevator stopped. The door opened, and they all walked out.

Espio became visible once more and pointed forwards to a metal door, slightly different in design to others as it had a logo on the front, which appeared to be that of a large brown bear behind a Celtic-style shield, with a star covering both holes on the sides of the shield, and a third one in the middle, and the words "Green Hill" were written over the top of the star, bending over it, and the same happened for the bottom as the words "Police Department" were plainly seen.

"Wow... that logo is so cool..." Tails said.

"There'll be time to gawk later," Espio said. "You'd all better get in there now before Commander Avery flips his shit."

"I thought he was a Commissioner?" Sonic asked.

"Eh, we call him both here. Commander's just easier to say," Espio replied, turning to go back to the elevator.

"Hey," said Sonic, "thanks for the help."

"No problem," Espio replied as the elevator doors closed.

Tails puffed out a worried breath before walking to the door, followed by the others. Instead of having to open the door themselves, it opened automatically, and they walked in to see Ash smiling before speaking.

"And here they are! Right on time," he nodded to the three. "I'm Ash, one of the tech experts at the Station. Joining me are Nicole the lynx, Lupe the wolf, Simian the gorilla, and our Commander, Avery the bear."

The big bear in question stood up, smiling at the trio and walking over. "It's nice to meet the latest graduates of Green Hill Academy." He shook the hands of all three before looking around. "You seem to be one short."

"That would be Knuckles," said Sonic. "He woke up late. Partied too hard last night, apparently, and the traffic's been a nightmare all morning."

"What kind of idiot throws a bash on the night before one of the most important days in his career?" Ash wondered.

"Who indeed..." Shadow muttered.

"Look, he'll be here," said Sonic reassuringly, ignoring his friend's comment. "Just give him a few more minutes. It'll be fine."

Simian then stood up. "I suppose that we should help them find their rooms."

"We get rooms?" asked Tails. "I thought we'd all be squeezed into little cubicles typing on a laptop."

"It's 2216, son. I'd like to think we've move on from how we used to be," Simian chuckled.

"Which floor are our rooms on?" asked Sonic.

"This one," replied Ash. "But you'll need to go to the ground floor to get your IDs from Cosmo and Mina."

"Anything else?" asked Shadow.

"Nope. That's it."

Avery stepped in. "Nicole will go with you to take you to your rooms if you need the help."

"Yay..." Nicole said, not very enthusiastically before standing up and walking over.

Sonic shrugged and nodded at Avery. "Thank you for the help." He then scratched his head. "Weren't we supposed to have a meeting?"

"Well, we would, but it is quite important to have all four of you here," Avery admitted. "So, in the meantime, go find your rooms."

"What about uniforms?" Tails added.

"They'll be sorted later, as will weapons and vehicles," the bear nodded. "I'll save it for the meeting."

Sonic shrugged. "All right then. Um, we'll leave you to it, I guess."

Nicole then spoke. "Let me lead the way."

"After you."

Nicole walked out the door, closely followed by the others as they headed to the elevator before speaking. "You know that part of the reason he's saving the info is for a mission, right?"

"I kinda gathered," Sonic nodded as they entered the elevator. "Any idea what that mission could be?"

"No clue," the lynx shook her head as she pressed the button for the ground floor.

"I'm more surprised that he's giving us a mission on our first day here," Tails said. "I wonder what our weapons will be like..."

"More importantly, I'd wonder if the uniform would fit you," Nicole said, nodding at Tails'... tails.

"Oh, uh... hehe... yeah..." the fox said nervously.

"Are those cybernetic? Or robotic, perhaps?"

"No. I... I was born with them," said Tails as the elevator door opened.

Nicole looked a bit worried. "Sorry if I said something bad."

"It's okay."

Sonic then cut in. "Trust me, Tails has pretty much heard it all when it comes to the twins. He also hates it when I call them the twins."

"I've gotten used to it over the years," Tails smiled.

They then walked over to nearby the front doors of the station, and saw a yellow mongoose with purple hair sat with a green... well, they knew it was a girl, at least. Whoever she was, Tails couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Hey Nicole!" said the green one.

"Hi there, Cosmo!" replied Nicole, nodding to the mongoose also. "Hi to you too, Mina!"

"Hey," Mina said. "Ooh. Who are these three?"

"These would be our new recruits," Nicole smiled.

"Ah, the Academy grads, huh?" Mina smiled, looking at the black and red hedgehog. "You're Shadow, right? I was the one who set up those training dummies! That ricochet shot that you landed through the steel was amazing!"

Shadow nodded in reply before Sonic spoke. "Sorry about my friend here. He's not the biggest talker."

Nicole then stepped forward. "You got those ID cards ready?"

Cosmo turned to her left, picking out three cards that were coloured titanium white and had the pictures of who they would be going to on the left side while the design of the department's logo could be seen on the left, highlighted in a dark grey as a black bar code could be seen nearer the bottom of the card underneath the logo. The name of the person who would have the card was written vertically along the right side of the main picture, the letters coloured a dim grey.

"Man, these look cool!" said Sonic. "How did you get those pictures of us, though?"

"From the database," said Mina. "A little tweaking here and there, and we just print your face onto the card." She then handed the cards over to Nicole, who gave them to Sonic and Shadow.

"Man, I love technology!" said Sonic, looking to Tails. "What do you think? Impressive, right?"

"Huh?" Tails said as he felt something nudge his hand. He looked down and saw his ID card, taking it from Nicole's hand. "Oh, yes! Yes it is." He smiled at Cosmo. "You did a good job."

"Well, thank you," Cosmo replied, looking away and smiling.

"Um..." said Nicole. "I guess I'll take you up to your rooms, then..."

"Thanks for these," said Sonic. "Oh, while I remember, do you have one made for Knuckles?"

"We do, but why would you need it now?" asked Mina.

"We may as well hold onto it until he gets here," Sonic replied.

"I wonder how far away he is now..." said Tails as they left, heading for the elevator.

"Who knows? Wherever he is, he'd better get here soon."

 **Meanwhile, just outside the department...**

Knuckles had just pulled up in his vehicle, seeing Sonic's own car not too far from the entrance. He immediately drove his car up, parking just a few feet behind his friend's car before getting out of his car and rushing to the building.

'Good thing my GPS was accurate,' Knuckles thought in his head as he ran. 'But the traffic really didn't help...'

He soon made it to the front doors and entered through them, pausing to take a few breaths before smiling as he looked around the building. He let out an appreciative whistle. "Nice digs."

"Knuckles the echidna?" said a female voice.

Knuckles turned to see Cosmo and Mina at a desk. "Oh, hey," he said, before wearing a frown. "Oh, crap... the meeting..."

"Actually, they haven't had it yet," said Mina. "Commander Avery wants to wait for all four of you to be here before he gives you your briefing."

"All of us?" Knuckles asked, checking his watch. "Are the others late?"

"Nope. Just you."

"Dammit..." Knuckles sighed. "Where are they?"

"They're getting checked into their rooms by Nicole upstairs," Cosmo answered. "They have your ID card with them, too."

"Third floor," Mina helpfully added.

"Thanks a lot," the echidna replied, turning to see the elevators.

He gave one more smile to the two girls before waling over to the elevator, pressing the button to call for it and waiting patiently. Soon, the lift doors opened, and he stepped inside them, pressing the button for the third floor and waiting again.

Quicker than he had expected, the elevator doors opened... only for Knuckles to see that someone had pressed the button for the first floor to get on. Knuckles held the elevator for them, smiling.

"Which floor?" Knuckles asked, noting that she was a rabbit and that she wore the signature G.H.P.D. uniform.

"Third, please," they replied, smiling at Knuckles. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Bunnie."

The echidna smiled. "Knuckles." He then noted that the hand he was shaking was metallic. "Whoa..."

"I know, I know," Bunnie said, her Southern belle lilt smothering her voice. "A lot of people get freaked out by them..."

"Um... what... erm..." Knuckles fumbled his words, not wanting to say anything to offend.

"Ah, it's fine, darlin'," she smiled. "I was actually born this way. Well, not exactly this way. I had a defect where some of my limbs couldn't grow properly, so they gave me robotic replacements instead."

"That's pretty cool," Knuckles admitted. "And sad. I'm sorry, Bunnie."

"Don't feel sorry and sad for little ol' me," Bunnie grinned as the elevator doors opened. "I can take care of myself."

Knuckled grinned as they both stepped out of the elevator. "Do you know where the rooms are?"

"Sure do. Just follow me!"

The echidna smiled, and Bunnie walked ahead of him, allowing him to follow closely behind. While there a few branching corridors, a majority of those led to offices or research rooms. Bunnie led Knuckles to the leftmost part of the floor, where the main room corridors would be.

"It should be along one of these hallways," the rabbit said as they both walked back and forth between them.

Knuckles frowned in exasperation before he heard a voice. "Yo, knucklehead! We're here!"

The red echidna paused just before the third hallway of the six that they'd been walking between, and saw Tails. "I'll be there in a minute!" He quickly turned to Bunnie, offering his hand. "Thanks for the help."

The rabbit looked at his hand before shaking it, and then giggled when she pulled him into a hug, which he returned before letting go. "Any time," she said, turning to her side and cocking her head to her left. "My hallway's a bit further up."

"Well, I hope to see you around," Knuckles said.

It was then that a fox stepped around a hallway, also wearing the G.H.P.D. uniform as he stepped over to Bunnie. "Ah, there you are!" he said happily. "Man, those meetings down at the robotics labs take longer and longer, huh?"

"Antoine! Hey, baby!" she said, jumping into his arms and hugging him before letting go and turning her head. "This here's Knuckles. He's a newbie here at the station. I was just helping him find his room."

Knuckles extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Antoine smiled and shook it. "Likewise. So, you're a graduate of Green Hill Academy, huh?" He smiled more. "Impressive. Not a lot of people make it through that with as high grades as you and the others."

"You know about us?" Knuckles asked.

"Antoine's one of the workers at the communications department of the station," said Bunnie. "He gets fed a lot of info. In fact, he helped design some of the sound effects for your courses at the academy."

"Wow, awesome!" Knuckles replied. "The sound effects of those dummies were pretty good."

"Thank you," Antoine smiled. "I even did all the criminal voices myself."

Knuckles was about to speak again, but turned his head to see Sonic walking out. It looked as though the blue hedgehog was about to warn Knuckles once more, but instead he smiled at Bunnie and Antoine.

"Hi there," he said, politely reaching his hand to shake. Antoine did, but Bunnie forewent it and hugged the hedgehog instead. "Oof!" Sonic said, slightly stumbling at the unexpected hug.

"She's a hugger," Antoine shrugged.

"I noticed," Sonic replied through a slightly strained breath as the hug was let go. "It's nice to meet you."

"Sonic, this is Bunnie and Antoine," Knuckles said, introducing them.

"Nice to meet you," Sonic smiled at the two before turning to the echidna. "It's nice to see that you finally got here."

"I'm sorry, man. It's like you said, traffic's been a pain in the neck all day," Knuckles replied with a shrug.

"If y'all need anything, don't hesitate to ask, ya here?" said Bunnie.

"Will do," Sonic smiled. "Thanks for your help in getting big red up here. He'd probably lose his way to the front entrance if you hadn't found him."

"That happened once, and those cookies were very distracting," Knuckles defended.

"It was at a corner store with automatic doors. I don't care how good the cookies were, that's just dumb."

"You're only saying that because you didn't get any cookies..."

The blue hedgehog chuckled and shook his head at his friend. "Come on. Your room's down this way." He then nodded at Bunnie and Antoine. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome," replied Antoine.

Knuckles nodded and smiled at the rabbit and fox combo before joining back with his friend, following him. "I'm so, so sorry..." he said as they began walking.

"It's fine, dude," Sonic said. "It ain't me you need to apologise to, though."

Knuckles breathed out an exhausted sigh. "Still doesn't make me feel any easier. This is not a great way to start my new job."

"And it doesn't make the rest of us look good either," Shadow said from his room, loud enough to be heard. "If you want us all to keep our places here, you'd better buck up."

"Says the guy who got so smashed last night that he back-flipped off of a table," Knuckles smirked.

"At least I landed it. You couldn't even walk before reaching the car."

"You're welcome for the lift, by the way," said Tails from his room.

"Okay, I know that I was late," Knuckles said, "but why the hell are you all picking on me?"

"Because it's fun," the fox shrugged.

"You know that I could put you through a wall, right?"

"Yep. But you won't," Tails chuckled. "You like us all too much."

Knuckles grunted. "Dammit, he's right..."

Sonic smiled before turning serious. "All right, we should all head up to Avery since we're all here."

"Wait, what about my room?" Knuckled asked.

"It's just to the left Tails' room," replied Sonic. "So, the next door down from when you first walk in the corridor." He then handed Knuckles his ID card. "You need this to get in."

"Huh. At least they picked a good picture of me," the red echidna smiled before walking over to the door in question. He inserted his ID card into a small slot in the left side of the door, and a deep, male, robotic voice began speaking.

"Now reading ID card... now checking ID... now accepting..." The door then made a few beeping noises before opening. "Welcome, Knuckles."

"Thanks," Knuckles replied, taking his card back out and walking into his room.

He smiled at the big amount of space there, and saw his bed in the corner of the room just opposite a closet. He looked to his right to see a small kitchenette, and just beyond that was a wooden door which led to a bathroom. He looked back over to the bedroom part and saw a desk with a spinning chair in front of it.

"One thing that the station neglected to mention," said Tails, "was that we had to bring our own stuff here. Since we were all in such a rush, we didn't have much time."

"Eh, we can do it tomorrow," said Sonic, walking to Knuckles. "Like it?"

"Are you kidding? This place looks better than my whole house, and it's three times smaller than that!"

"Good to hear," the blue hedgehog said as he patted his friend's shoulder. "Come on. We should head to the briefing room before Avery sends someone for us."

"Ah, there you all are," said a voice.

Sonic peeked his head to the bottom end of the hallway, seeing Ash. "Oh, hey man. We were just about to get on our way."

The mongoose nodded. "It's just nice to have you all here." He then spotted the red echidna. "Knuckles, I presume?"

"That would be my name, yes."

"It's nice to have you here, is all. Come on."

Knuckles nodded, running a bit to catch up with Ash as he began walking, with the rest of his friends soon joining him as they walked out of the corridor and across the hall to the right side of the third floor, seeing the door to the briefing room.

"Ooh... fancy logo," Knuckles said.

"If you do a good enough job, you might be able to wear that on your uniform soon," Ash smiled. "Maybe even on your skin."

"Sounds good to me."

"Ink?" Sonic asked. "Slow down there, dude. Let's focus on not getting our asses fired first."

Ash chuckled at that as the doors opened, showing off the large meeting room. Ash walked around the table in the middle, taking a seat near the top end of it, while the four newbies stayed where they were for the time being.

Avery, who had his back turned as he was looking over some pictures on the large screen that Ash was using earlier, turned around with a smile. "Ah! So nice to finally have all four of you here."

"So, what have you got for us?" Sonic asked.

Avery smiled and walked around the table to meet them directly, extending his hand towards Knuckles. "First, a handshake for the newest recruit."

Knuckles took it. "I apologise for my lateness, but it truly is an honour to be here, sir."

"Ah, no apologies needed. If you want to make it up to me, you can start by taking a seat." He then looked at the others. "That goes for all of you."

None of them hesitated as they moved to take their seats near the bottom of the table, all remaining close to each other as Avery walked around to the screen again, Ash handing him the remote as he walked around.

"I take it that you all found your rooms okay?" the bear asked.

"Yes sir," Tails answered.

"And I suppose that Nicole has told you that information on your uniforms, weapons, and other information?"

"Also true," Sonic said, then adding. "In fact, she mentioned that the reason that you want all four of us is for a mission."

"It's true. I do have something for you. But it would be extremely remiss if I didn't say this first." Avery paused and smiled, looking over at the four. "Gentlemen... welcome to the Green Hill Police Department."

* * *

 **And there we go! The first chapter of Cyber Riders. I do apologise if this seems a bit short and a slow start, but trust me, it will pick up speed. I hope. You know what else I hope? I hope that you all enjoyed it. As I mentioned at the top, this was the most voted for story on the poll I put up, and I thank everyone for their votes, even if you didn't get what you wanted. I'll see you all in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	2. Catch On Quick

"So..." Sonic started, "what's the lowdown? I mean, I know what it is, but, what is it exactly?"

Tails turned to his friend. "Dude, slow down. Just take a breath and keep it cool."

"He knew what I meant," Sonic said, gesturing to Avery. "Right?"

"Of course I did," the Commander replied. "There's no need to worry, Sonic. Everything you need to know will be up on the screen." He then turned to press a button on the remote, bringing up an imageof a bright white circular tablet with small specks of teal blue on it. "No doubt you're all familiar with this new drug. It's called Fokus, spelled with a K and not a C."

"Apparently, the creator didn't focus on the spelling..." Tails mumbled.

"We read up some on it at the Academy," Knuckles said. "What do we know about it so far?"

"That's the thing," said Nicole, sitting up. "This drug hasn't even started being pushed yet, so we're not completely sure."

"How do you know about it, then?" Sonic asked.

"A little birdy by the name of Nack the weasel, otherwise known as Fang," Avery said, pressing again to bring up a picture of the weasel in question. "Despite the fact that he's a weasel, he's been known to be one of the biggest rats out there right now. He has his fingers in everything, and somehow, he always keeps them clean. He's so willing to sell out others he works with, and by the time anyone gets to him, he gets out of dodge fast."

"Where was he seen last?" Shadow asked.

"Spring Yard City. Our boys over there were so close to catching the bastard, but he managed to slip through our fingers."

"Not that this isn't interesting and all," Sonic said, "but where is he now?"

Avery pressed another button, showing Nack just under a sign that read Green Hill Subway Station, with the purple weasel walking out from the subway level, holding a brown hat over his face in the hopes to cover his identity.

"He thought that he could hide," Simian spoke. "The hat and duster coat was a nice touch, I'll admit. But he can't hide that bucktooth forever."

"That tail is kind of hard to miss too," Tails added. "And that's coming from me."

"When was this taken?" asked Knuckles.

"We don't know, but eyewitnesses around the train station said at least three days ago," replied Ash.

"Anything else that we need to know?" asked the echidna.

"Only that, if you hear rumours about Fokus being pushed somewhere, don't call it a coincidence," Ash smiled.

"All righty," Sonic smiled. "When do we go catch this son of a bitch?"

"When we have a lead on him," Avery replied. "Which we don't. In the meantime, I'll be more than happy to show you your weaponry."

"I've been looking forward to this..." Knuckles grinned.

Avery pressed a button on the remote, bringing up a picture of what appeared to be a standard looking Walther P99, but it looked a bit bigger, its paint job was a sleek, smooth black, and there were tinges of teal blue integrated into the design of it.

"These are your basic pistols. They're a lot more powerful than the ones you trained with at the academy," Avery said. "Our boys that worked on them have nicknamed them Stunners, and for good reason. Each bullet has traces of small electrical spikes which give off a small charge when they hit anything electrical, on top of doing the normal damage that a bullet would. If they hit a somebody that has no metallic parts whatsoever, then it just hurts normally. However, you manage to sling one of these at someone with cyber parts, it will shut them down from the inside."

"Aw, that's just cool," Sonic smiled.

"Will all of our weapons be like that?" asked Tails.

"They'll have some elements of them, yes," said Avery. "Unfortunately, we don't have any fancy nicknames in store for the others. I'll be more than happy to show you them, though."

And so he did, bringing up more images of other weapons which included a SPAS 12 shotgun, an M16A4 assault rifle, an M24 SWS sniper rifle, and finally, a Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun, all of which had similar designs to the handguns that were brought up earlier.

"All of the weapons have very much the same function as the Stunner when it comes to the bullets," said Avery.

"You guys really went all out," said Knuckles, impressed.

"That's not all of our weaponry, either," pointed out Simian. "We do have more. But we just stick to the basics for now, which should help you all greatly since you're new here."

"Anything else?" Sonic asked.

Avery pressed another button, and instead of another gun, some form of grenade appeared. Much like the weapons before it, it had black paint covering it with bits of azure thrown in, and the grenade's shape was spherical, but rather large.

"These are our standard issue grenades," Avery explained. "They're called Outbursts. These babies may only have one pin, but there are a few buttons on the side." He pressed on the remote again. "Depending on which button you press will give you the desired effect of the grenade. You've got your basic frag and smoke, along with flashbangs, incendiary, and stun options."

"Our best work in terms of grenades, however," said Lupe, "comes from our EMPs. Now, as we all know, they give out a pulse that shuts down anything electric within the area. But our grenades do things a bit differently."

"How much differently?" asked Tails.

"These ones not only give out a pulse, but they even give out a small burst of electrical energy too. That way, not only does it shut down electrical systems, but it damages them also, and the effects of the basic EMP will last longer as a result!"

"Well, that's a lot differently indeed," said Knuckles.

"We have to be prepared more than ever when we go out into the field," said Nicole. "You never know what kinds of bad guys might have what kinds of implants."

"Luckily, we do have options if anybody is stupid enough to try and fight us more physically," Ash added.

Avery grinned and pressed the remote once more, bringing up a pair of weapons; on the left was a double-edged knife, and on the right was an expandable police baton, and instead of sticking with the tradition of the guns before them, these weapons had more of a faded silver colour, with no tinges or hues of anything else.

"These are your melee options, should you choose to use them," Avery said. "Not only are they both effective on their own, but there's a little button on the bottom of the handle of each weapon. You press this thing, it'll surround the weapon in electricity, doing more damage and helping shut down the bad guys that much quicker."

"Does any of this stuff have a time limit?" asked Tails.

"How do you mean?" Simian asked.

"Like, will the bullets run out of juice and the thing that got hit returns to normal? Does the same go for the knife and the baton?"

"Ah. Well, yes, they do eventually," said Avery. "The bullets all have a fifteen second time limit, and the melee stuff has ten seconds because they're more effective on their own anyway. It's the EMPs that get the lion's share, though. Thirty seconds maximum."

"And we should point out," said Nicole, "that while each of you will have your assigned handguns, the other weapons will be available should you need them."

"Yeah, you carry the whole bunch in the backs of your cars," Avery added. "But the pistols stay with you. They're pretty much an extra part of your uniform."

"Speaking of the uniforms," Tails said, "will we be getting any body armour?"

"You will indeed," said the Commander, pushing in another button that brought up two images.

"The one on the left is the G.H.P.D. uniform with the body armour, on the right is just the armour itself," Simian explained. "The body armour itself is your basic black, but it goes well over the uniform. It's made of reinforced Kevlar with shock-proof coating to stop other bad guys from using your own weapons against you."

"We know that none of you have any implants," said Ash, "but those bullets and knives are still going to hurt like hell either way."

"Even with the vests, it's still painful," Sonic said. "Those endurance tests at the academy were a son of a bitch to get past. Even Shadow looked hurt."

"Well, what did you expect?" asked Knuckles. "We had to stand there with the armour on while they shot us. Granted, they were rubber bullets, but those still hurt a lot!"

"Trust me, we know you've all got the bruises to prove it," said Avery. "But when you're done, I'd like to move on."

"Our apologies," said Tails. "So, what's next?"

"Well, what's next is very much what's last." Avery pressed another button, bringing up an image of a police car. The paint of the body was a shining, polished silver, and the tyres were your typical black colour whilst the wheels were more of a pale white. Along the left side of the car read "Green Hill Police Department", and on the right side was the bear logo. To top it off, quite literally, was a row of neon blue lights, all together in one long bar with the exception of the middle part being a bright white cover with the word "Police" engraved in black block capital lettering.

"These will be your cars," the bear continued. "Capable of reaching speeds of up to 150 mph if need be, made from a light titanium to keep a good balance of durability and speed, and equipped with a wide range police radio, this thing is the true workhorse of the force."

"Hehe, that rhymed," said Knuckles.

"So, that's most of the outside covered," said Sonic, "but what about the rest of the inside?"

Ash smiled. "It's equipped with a holographic computer, options to drive manually or go on autopilot, has a weapon's compartment in the trunk, and best of all, it has cup-holders! Oh, and there's a pair of built-in machine guns for extra offence hidden in the hood."

"Very nice," Sonic said. "I can safely say that I'm going to like it here."

Simian then spoke up. "There's also the handcuffs. We kind of left those out."

Avery chuckled and flicked through the screen with the remote before landing on the object in question. They were black, like most of the rest of the stuff, but instead of full handcuffs connected by a chain in the middle, it was just two halves of a handcuff placed separately.

"How are we supposed to lock up bad guys with those?" Knuckles asked.

"Ah, patience is a virtue, my friend," Sonic said.

Tails then chimed in. "Now, Knuckles, I want you to consider who just told you that..."

The blue hedgehog playfully swatted at his friend. "Yeah, very funny, twins," he said with a chuckle.

"Ahem..." Shadow cleared his throat, getting the attention of the other three.

Avery then spoke. "If I may continue... these handcuffs may not look that impressive at first, but when you place them on someone's wrist, an electrical circle will sprout out to complete the handcuff. That way, not only does it have the effect of normal handcuffs, but if they move too much, it will give them a gentle shock as a warning."

"Me and the guys at the tech division worked hard on those," said Ash, then turning to Sonic and his friends. "I can only hope that they pay off when you guys need to use them."

"You bet we will," said Sonic. "If you guys went through all of the trouble of making all this stuff, then the least we could do is put it to good use."

"I'm so glad you said that," said Avery. "Because it's finally time to get to the mission."

"Is it anything related to Nack?" asked Knuckles.

"It could be. There's been rumours of a possible shipment of Fokus down at a local car auto-shop." A picture popped up on the screen of the inside of said auto-shop. "Witnesses have said that they've seen mechanics and others who work there taking more and more breaks recently, and coming back from them looking different."

"Where are the deals being done?" asked Shadow.

"From what we can tell, somewhere around the back of the shop," said Lupe. "We don't know if it's inside or outside, so you'll have to find that out yourself."

"The shop's open all hours as a rule, so you don't have to worry about dropping in at the wrong time," said Avery. "Just try to make sure that it's when they're on their break, which could literally be at any time."

"We'll stop whatever they're doing," said Sonic. "When do we start?"

"As soon as possible," said Avery. "Simian will take you down to the armoury to get you what you need."

The gorilla stood up, as did Sonic and his friends before Tails spoke. "What about our cars?"

Ash stood up also, and looked somewhat regretful. "Pretty much everyone else is spoken for at the moment, so there's not really many free cars."

"We could take mine," said Knuckles. "It's not exactly an armoured machine of police level design, but it'll get us there."

"Huh..." Avery smiled. "That's some good thinking. In fact, I think that I might have a plan..."

"What does this plan entail?" asked Sonic.

"Well, simple. You just go undercover," the bear chuckled. "Since none of you are in your uniform yet, that will help. And since Knuckles will be taking his own personal vehicle, that'll be a good incentive to be allowed into the auto-shop."

"We can't all go in at once though, right?" said Sonic. "They might suspect something's up."

"I got an idea for that," Tails smiled. "I'll tell you on the way there."

Avery nodded. "Good. The name of the shop is Gear Steers, and it's on the west side of the city, not too far from here."

Sonic smiled. "Thanks." He turned to his friends. "Should we get going?"

"Yes, we shall," Knuckles replied.

"Let me lead. We've got to get you your guns," said Simian as they all started for the door.

"Well then, all I can say is good luck," Avery spoke, causing Sonic to stop and listen. "It might be your first mission, but don't expect us to go easy on you. We saw how good you all were at the academy."

"Hehe... then I guess we'd better prove it," the blue hedgehog replied as he left through the door, following his friends.

They made it to the stairs, not needing the elevator as the armoury was one floor down. Simian lead the group to the top right corner of the floor, and into a decently sized room where a crocodile was sat behind a desk, his black trainers perched up onto the desk itself as a pair of black headphones blasted music into his ears. He was wearing a dark grey hoodie and black jeans.

"Vector," Simian said as they entered.

The crocodile turned his head to see the gorilla and pulled his headphones down to his neck. "Hey there, ape man. What can I do you for?"

"It's not me you need to do something for," Simian said, gesturing to Sonic and the others.

"Ooh... so these are the rookies, huh?" Vector sat up more, his feet now on the ground. "I saw some of the footage of you guys at Green Hill Academy. Very impressive stuff." He then looked over at Shadow. "Especially you with that sniper shot."

Shadow just shrugged.

"Thanks," Sonic smiled, before gesturing to Shadow. "Trust me, he's smiling on the inside."

"So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and just assume that you guys need Stunners, cuffs, and possibly a grenade or two?"

"Just the Stunners and cuffs," said Sonic. "We doubt a grenade will be too necessary for where we're going."

"Maybe an EMP then?" Tails suggested.

The blue hedgehog thought about it for a few seconds, then shrugged and nodded. "Sure. Oh, and those batons, too."

"Running me ragged already," Vector playfully scolded. "All right, I'm on it." He stood up and went to the back room, calling a name. "Yo, Charmy! I need four handguns, eight EMP grenades, four batons, and four pairs of handcuffs!"

The person in question he was calling was a small bee, who flew over to Vector with the items in question. He wore a striped red and orange t-shirt with three buttons on the collar, a pair of green cargo shorts, and orange shoes.

"Are these the new guys?" Charmy asked.

"That they are," answered Vector.

Knuckles looked closely at Charmy. "How old are you?"

"I turned 17 last week," the bee replied. "Why?"

"Eh, you just seemed a bit younger is all," Knuckles said. "Sorry if I said anything stupid."

"Just ignore him," said Tails. "Most of what comes out of his mouth is stupid anyway."

Vector chuckled as he walked over, handing them their weapons. "I take it that Avery and the rest of the higher-ups already told you how these babies work, huh?"

"Yes they did," Sonic replied.

"Well, you'd better take that knowledge with you. There's a lot more to firing a gun than just pulling the trigger."

"Vector getting serious?" Simian chuckled. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"Just trying to give our latest recruits some sage advice," the crocodile shrugged.

"Says the Academy drop out," Charmy said with a grin.

"An Academy drop out with great music taste and an awesome smile," Vector retorted.

"Regardless, we should get going," said Simian. "Thank you both for your help."

"Eh, anything to help the force," Vector shrugged, turning to Sonic once more. "Have fun shooting at people."

"I'll try to show restraint, if you'll pardon the pun," the blue hedgehog chuckled.

Simian smiled and turned around. At first, the others followed him for a few feet before he stopped and turned around. "You guys had better get to that repair shop. We don't know how much time we have."

"Thanks for your help," Tails said. "We'll do our best."

The gorilla smiled. "It's Avery that you have to convince, not me. But I do have faith that you'll do well. As does he, I reckon." He then walked up the stairs to the third floor.

"Elevator?" Sonic asked.

"Elevator," Knuckles answered.

The four walked over to the elevators, pressing the button and waiting, and as it opened, they saw Antoine on the other side, who smiled and stepped aside for them to get in, which they did, smiling in thanks.

"You going down to the ground floor too?" Knuckles asked.

"I am indeed," Antoine replied. "I hear that you've got your first mission?"

"Yeah. Got a deal to shut down at Gear Steers," said Sonic.

"That's that auto-shop, right? I've heard about that," Antoine said as the elevator opened. He stepped out with the others before continuing. "In fact, Bunnie went there to get some repairs done on our car the other day, and besides the fact that the car itself came back worse, she noticed how strangely the people that work there were acting."

"Is this the first case of that happening?" Tails asked.

"As far as we know, it's one of them," Antoine replied. "Bunnie's not the first, and I doubt that she'll be the last."

"Well, don't worry," Knuckles smiled. "We'll find them and take them out, then we'll bring them in."

"Let's hope so," the French coyote replied. "With the rumours of Fokus going around, it could give us the lead that we need."

"We'll get it," Sonic assured. "Don't worry."

Antoine nodded. "Best of luck to you all."

"Thanks. We may need it."

With that, Antoine nodded and headed to the far right of the ground floor while Sonic and the others walked to the front doors of the building, exiting through them as they headed to Knuckles' car.

"Shotgun!" Tails called.

"Dammit..." Sonic muttered under his breath. "Well played, my furry friend. Well played, indeed."

Knuckles laughed at that as he pressed the button on his keys to unlock his car, with everyone getting into their seats. They strapped on their seat-belts as Knuckles hooked the key to the ignition, turning on the car's engine.

"So," Sonic said to Tails, "what's this little plan that you've got?"

Meanwhile, at Gear Steers...

"What are you talking about?" said a human male, obviously distraught and angered as he stood next to his car. "The damage on the side wasn't my fault! Some drunken jackass hit me from the side last night!"

The person he was talking to, a Mobian polar bear, shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, buddy. Your car, you've got to pay with your cash."

"I did pay you! You're just refusing to fix my car!" the human replied.

"Look, dude... you just stay here for a moment, okay?"

"Where are you going off to?"

"I need a smoke. I'm sick of dealing with your bitching. If you want that car fixed, go take it somewhere else." The polar bear then added. "Oh, and the gas refill is going to cost you extra too!"

The human growled and hopped back in his car, backing out of the garage of the shop, flipping a middle finger at the polar bear as he drove backwards. As he pulled out, he turned his head to see Knuckles driving forward past him, who noticed that the human looked a bit stressed.

"Everything okay, buddy?" the echidna asked.

"No, nothing is okay! Word of advice: don't go in there."

"Kind of need to. My car's low on gas," Knuckles shrugged.

"Well... don't say I didn't warn you."

The human then drove the rest of the way out, going on his own way and giving Knuckles more room to drive into the garage before hopping out of his car and walking around to the front of it, entering the centre of the shop.

"Hello?" he called out. "Anybody home?"

From around a nearby corner appeared a small green duck sporting dark blue coveralls. "Hey there."

"Hi," Knuckles replied. "How much is it for gas?"

"About fifty cents a litre."

"Damn. No wonder that other guy got pissed," Knuckles said as he went to the gas pump. "Am I free to do this on my own?"

"Yeah. I won't bother you," the duck said. "I'm Bean."

"Knuckles. Nice place you got here."

Bean smiled. "Thanks, man. Oh, you didn't see someone else here not that long ago, did you?"

"I saw some fat bald dude get mad because you were charging him way too much to do way too little," Knuckles shrugged.

"So, you think that we screwed him out of some money?" Bean suggested.

"Um... yeah, I kinda do."

The duck shook his head. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today."

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?"

"We've got a new shipment of car parts coming in around the back." Bean then smirked. "In fact, do you want to come around and see them firsthand?"

"Eh... I'll pass," Knuckles said as he refilled his car.

"Come on, I'll give you a discount," Bean suggested.

"It's not that I'm not tempted. I just know that I'll get better prices at... well, literally any other auto-shop."

Bean squinted in anger and was about to speak when in walked the polar bear from earlier. Bean turned to him. "Bark... thank goodness you're here."

"What seems to be the problem?" asked Bark.

"This red guy has been casually insulting our business and is accusing us of overcharging."

"Huh. Is that right?"

Knuckles grinned and looked pointedly at the polar bear. "Hey, you can spin it in whatever way you want." He then cracked his neck a little bit before pulling the gas hose from the hole in his car. "I'm just saying that maybe you shouldn't charge too much. Even for gas, of all things."

"Well then, how about you take your refuelled car and drive right out of here," Bark said. "Because it seems to me that your car is far from damaged... for now."

"So, now you're threatening an innocent civilian too?" Knuckles said. "Very poor showing for your shop..."

Before either Bark or Bean could reply, they heard a voice calling from outside. "Hey! The shipment's going to be here in a minute!"

"We'll be there!" Bark called, before turning to Knuckles. "You'd better get out of here quick."

"Eh, I got what I came for," Knuckles replied, turning to get back into his car. "Take care."

He then pulled out of the garage, driving backwards and exiting it as the door opened. As he pulled back, he stopped to turn his head, making sure it was clear, before turning left and driving.

After a few moments, he reached where he wanted to get to, smiling as he saw his friends waiting for him. "Good plan so far, Tails. I'm impressed."

The two-tailed fox smiled back and gave Knuckles his gun and ID card back. "I'm more impressed that you managed to pull off the signal without being caught out by those ass-holes at the shop."

"How many guys are working there?" Sonic asked.

"From what I could tell, at least three. There were two inside, and one voice that I heard out the back, but that doesn't mean that was all of them."

"And the shipment?"

"Just coming in."

Shadow peeked his head around and saw a truck coming in, just turning the corner to get to the back of Gear Steers. "Looks like it just arrived."

Knuckles couldn't hide his grin as he tucked his gun in the back of his jeans. "So, do we go into phase two of the plan now?"

"We do indeed," said Tails, standing up. "Let's walk there."

The others all either nodded or spoke in agreement before Sonic led the way back around to Gear Steers. They all ducked low to keep from being seen, and the blue hedgehog turned with a nod. When he did, Shadow joined up with him, and Knuckles and Tails turned and went around the left side of the shop.

"Remember, we've got to stay quiet," Sonic whispered to his partner, before chuckling under his breath. "Right... I forgot who I was talking to there for a second."

They continued the rest of the way in silence, sticking to their place just behind the corner of the wall as Sonic dared a peek around the corner. As Knuckles said, there was more than three there, as Sonic saw that at least five people that actually worked there, with the remaining three being Mobian wolves, also dressed in coveralls like Bean was. Just a few feet away from them were a couple of humans, both male.

"So, you got the stuff?" asked one of the wolves.

"You know, this isn't the best place for a test run," said one of the humans, holding a briefcase.

"So say the people under Nack's payroll," said another wolf. "What's it like to be working under him?"

"More profitable than it would be if we were to work under you," replied the other human, sharply.

"Look, there's no need for any animosity or bad blood, okay?" said Bark, trying to ease things over. "We've got your money right here."

The third wolf walked over, also holding a briefcase. Before handing it over, he opened up the case, showing the money inside. In return, the human holding his briefcase opened it up, showing several shining silver needles inside, each containing a liquid that looked bright blue.

"Seriously? We're paying this much for that little?" the first wolf complained.

"Trust me... it could be worth it."

"So, you haven't even tested it yet?" the wolf growled. "I smell a rat..."

"Correction: we haven't tested this new version," said the second human. "Our old version didn't have any problems, but we needed to change the positive effects up a little bit to make them stronger."

"What about the negatives?" asked Bean.

"For the most part, almost completely gone. If you want to test it, then go right ahead."

Bark nods. "Well, you did deliver it at least. On three, we trade the briefcases. Deal?"

"Of course."

The polar bear took the money briefcase from the third wolf and walked over to the human, who also took a few steps forward. Carefully, they handed the cases to each other at the exact same time before extending their other hand to shake.

That was when the human looked over to see Knuckles peeking around the corner. Growling, he took a few steps back and reached into his pocket. "And you're the ones who thought that you smelled a rat... I thought we had a fair deal!"

"What are you talking about? We didn't set nobody up!" said the second wolf, surreptitiously reaching into his back pocket.

"Then what's that big red hedgehog doing over the back there?"

"Fuck..." Knuckles muttered under his breath as the two parties kept arguing. "Sorry that I messed up the plan, Tails."

"It's cool. We can carry on anyway."

With that, they both grinned at each other, pulling their guns out and walking forwards, stopping just a few feet from behind the wolves. As said wolves looked around, the humans noticed Sonic and Shadow walking over, also with their guns pointed.

"Freeze!" Sonic called, before smirking. "Always wanted to say that."

"You brought cops?" the humans asked.

"We didn't bring anybody!" Bean claimed. "How do we know that you didn't bring them? You're working for Nack, so who knows how much sway you've got with the feds?"

"You know, this deal doesn't have to go all that south," said Sonic. "You could just hand over the cash and the drugs, and nobody will get hurt."

"What for? So you can use them?" a wolf asked. "You ain't taking us alive!"

"Hey, it's your funeral, pal," said Knuckles, keeping his gun pointed.

Bark then turned to directly face Knuckles. "I should have known that I couldn't trust you."

"Yeah... that's a major issue in our world these days." Knuckles shrugged, holding his gun higher. "Get used to it."

After a few more seconds of silence, the humans began laughing before one of them spoke. "Ah... I love it when rookies try to act all tough."

"What makes you say that?" Tails asked.

"It's obvious that you're new to those guns, and to all of this. What, they didn't teach you this at the academy while you were ass-kissing your way to the top?"

"Aw..." Sonic playfully moped. "Was somebody rejected from Green Hill Academy for being an unbearable dickhead?"

"Funny. I was about to say the same thing about you."

The blue hedgehog grinned. "Rookies or not, you're coming with us. Now."

"Ah. You must be the fearless leader then," the human said, dropping his gun and remaining unfazed as he looked over at the others. "The midget with the twin tails is probably the smart one. Big, red, and stupid must be the muscle. That leaves the black and red carbon copy, who I'm going to assume is just remaining silent because he likes to think that he's edgy."

"I wonder when you're going to get your psychiatry degree..." Tails muttered.

"It's like Sonic said," Shadow spoke up, "just give us the briefcases, and everyone leaves unscathed."

"And what if we refuse?" asked Bark.

"Then I'd imagine that you'd get very scathed indeed," Knuckles replied.

"That's not a word," Bark replied, almost inaudibly. "But I've got some words of my own to get out..."

In a flash, he pulled out his gun, turning to face Knuckles and Tails, before smiling and firing at them. The fox and the echidna backed away, as did Sonic and Shadow, who were being fired at by Bean and two of the wolves, with the remaining one rushing for the briefcases.

Seeing this, Sonic focused his aim on the wolf, but before he could fire, the two humans shot back at him before then kicking the wolf away, causing it to let out a yelp as they grabbed the cases and rushed back to their truck.

"Those humans are trying to escape!" said Tails, turning his attention to the truck.

"We've got other problems right now, fox boy!" Knuckles replied as he kept behind cover with the fox. "Dammit! We can't both shoot from here!"

Tails looked around, then saw a large dumpster. "I've got an idea! Come on!" he said, running over to the large bin. "Let's move this out!"

"Mobile cover, huh? Nice!"

As the two grabbed it and started to move it, Sonic and Shadow were having a similar problem with their cover before Sonic took note of a car in the parking lot nearby. "I'm going to head for that car! Cover me!"

Shadow nodded, peeking out of the corner to fire as his blue cohort ran as quickly as he could, finally reaching the car in question and ducking behind it before taking a few breaths, peeking out to fire at Bark's group.

"I wish that we brought some grenades now!" said Knuckles as a bullet pinged off of the dumpster.

"We have the EMPs, dude," Tails reminded.

"I forgot about that," the echidna said, peeking out to fire. This time, he managed to hit one of the wolves in the arm, causing the wolf to yelp slightly as blood started to pour from his shoulder. "Now's the perfect time to use one!"

Tails nodded, reaching into his pocket and picking one out. "This would be so much easier if we ever got to wear our uniforms..." he said, pulling the pin before standing up. "Sonic! Shadow! Get to cover!"

The yellow fox then stood up, looked over the dumpster, and threw his grenade, and it had landed perfectly in the middle of the opposing group. Just as Bean had noticed that it was there, the EMP went off. Now, while none of them had any cybernetics parts, there was still the electrical damage that the grenade did that hurt and stunned them, causing their visions to blur and their heads to ache.

"I can't see a fucking thing!" said Bark, wiping his eyes.

"Now!" Sonic called, rushing from behind his cover as he pulled his baton from his pocket, pressing the button on the bottom to surround it in electricity. Likewise, Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles had all done the same, and they manoeuvred quickly through the opposing group. Tails was the first to strike, attacking the wounded wolf with a strike to the stomach and causing it to keel over before he pressed his knees against the wolf's back and prepared his handcuffs, placing them around the wolf's wrists.

"Don't struggle too much," Tails warned as he grabbed the wolf's gun, tossing it away.. "You might feel a little bit of discomfort if you move around too much."

The fox then picked the wolf up and walked away with him, knowing that the smart option would be to keep an eye on him. While Tails was kept busy with his capture, he watched the rest of the fight ensue.

The bad guys had seemed to get their eyesight working again, but the first thing that Bean saw was a black and red hedgehog rush towards him. Instead of using his charged baton, he first kicked the duck in the gut, hurting him before striking Bean around the head with his baton, causing him to cry in pain before Shadow slapped the cuffs on him, disarming his weapon.

Knuckles dealt with the two remaining wolves. Instead of having to relieve his opponents of their weaponry, they dropped them on their own, knowing that a firefight would be futile by this point. Our of respect, Knuckles switched his stick off and put it in his back pocket. The first wolf let out a growl and moved to attack the echidna, only for him to step to his left and land a right hand to the wolf's stomach, followed by a knee to his nose, breaking it and causing the wolf to fall unconscious. The second wolf then moved, but had about as much success as his predecessor as Knuckles stopped him with a quick punch to the temple, knocking him out in one shot and causing him to fall atop his fellow wolf.

"Anybody got an extra pair of cuffs?" Knuckles grinned as he pulled his own out, deciding to attach one wolf's wrist to the wrist of the other wolf. "That'll have to do for now."

That left Sonic with Bark. Sonic kept his baton switched on, and Bark immediately moved to attack. Before Sonic could move, Bark feinted a punch and kicked Sonic's leg, causing the hedgehog to stumble a little bit. He followed this up with a punch to Sonic's stomach, landing flush.

"Man... you hit pretty hard for a car mechanic..." Sonic said as he panted to recover, dodging a kick from Bark.

The polar bear grinned. "Why aren't your friends coming to help you out?"

"Because they've got to keep your boys locked down," Sonic replied darkly, giving a smirk. "Having all of one side or all of the other wouldn't be fair on either of us."

It was then that Bark's ears perked up, hearing several sirens start to close on. Instantly, Sonic chose to capitalise on this, quickly drawing out his baton and switching it on, delivering a crushing shot to the small of Bark's back, landing him on his hands and knees before adding another shot with the baton.

Just as the blue hedgehog went about cuffing the polar bear, he looked around at his friends. "Which one of you called for the backup?"

Shadow raised his hand, before Tails spoke. "Huh. Sometimes it's the quiet ones that you've got to watch out for."

Sonic grinned and finished cuffing Bark, standing up and keeping him held close while they all waited for the police to arrive. About a minute later, they did arrive, and Espio was the first to walk out of a vehicle, smiling at Sonic and the others as the other officers that came by went about picking up the others.

"Good work," the purple chameleon smiled. "Avery's going to be pretty impressed with this."

"Well, it wasn't a total win," said Knuckles as a couple of officers walked over to extricate Bark from Sonic. "The humans got away with the shipment of what we can only assume to be the Fokus drug, and we didn't get the number plate of their truck..."

"Do you remember what the truck looked like?" asked Espio.

"Just big and black," Tails shrugged. "Pretty nondescript."

"Regardless, you all did a good job here. You stopped these guys from getting the Fokus to begin with, even if you didn't walk away with it yourself to bring back to the station."

"We didn't get the money either," Shadow threw in. "The humans came in here hoping to trade one for the other, but they got away with both."

Sonic then snapped his fingers. "Now that I remember, they did mention that they were working under Nack."

"Nack, huh?" Espio cocked an eyebrow. "That's impressive. He's been in Green Hill City three days and he's already pushing drugs down idiots' throats."

"We can hear you, you know..." said Bean from a car.

"You were meant to hear that one," Espio said, turning back to Sonic. "Come on. Let's head back to the station. Day ain't over yet."

With that, he walked off, making sure that all of the bad guys were locked safely and securely in their cuffs, with the two wolves that Knuckles caught being given their own individual pairs of cuffs. As the police cars started driving off, Knuckles led the way back to his car.

"Shotgun!" Tails called.

"Dammit, not again..." Sonic mumbled.

Shadow shook his head, getting into the backseat with Sonic as Knuckles hopped into the driver's seat. He turned the ignition, and the car rumbled to life before he turned off the corner and spun around to follow the police cars back to the station.

"Well... not bad for our first day, huh?" Knuckles said, smiling.

"It ain't over yet," Sonic reminded. "We've got quite a while to go yet."

* * *

 **So, that's it for the second chapter. There will be plenty more action to come soon, so just stick around. What do you all think of the guns and the weapons? Also, the fight scene? I hope it's all good. Regardless, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all in the next one. I hope that you're all enjoying it so far. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	3. Time And A Place

Knuckles and his friends kept following the police cars, soon reaching the station. As the other cars pulled up front, Knuckles did the same, swinging the car around and fitting perfectly between two police cars.

"Nice park, dude," Sonic said.

"Thanks. I've been practising," said the red echidna as he killed the engine.

"Good to know that the guns work," said Tails, being the first to get out of the car. "I do wish that it was against someone with cybernetics, though."

"What, afraid of a little blood?" Sonic playfully teased.

"Not that. I just wanted to see the electronic effects for myself," Tails shrugged.

"Do you think that any of them had implants or abilities?" Knuckles pondered.

"They didn't seem like it," Sonic answered. "Those humans, however? That's a definite maybe."

"I love it when you're specific," Tails jibed.

"Hear me out," Sonic said as they walked towards the station. "Those humans were wearing coats, gloves, boots... they were keeping themselves well covered, despite the lovely weather we're having. You don't find that a little odd?"

"I think that I see what you're getting at," the yellow fox nodded. "But why would Nack need two enhanced humans to perform a simple drug deal?"

"Maybe he thinks they're expendable," Shadow shrugged.

"What, like Sylvester Stallone?" Knuckles asked, smirking.

"I mean like they're easy to dispose of," the black and red hedgehog replied. "I don't think that Nack even knows that they've got cybernetics."

"It still doesn't answer the question of why he hired them in the first place," Sonic said.

"It's like Shadow said," Tails replied, "he thought the humans were expandable. He probably doesn't even care about if they have abilities or not. He just wants to see his ends met. And, as was explained to us in the briefing room earlier, he has a habit of selling out his friends just to get ahead."

Sonic chuckled. "Remind me to try to talk Avery into promoting you to be a detective."

"Aw, shucks," Tails rolled his eyes.

"I know, I know... I can't get rid of you that easily," Sonic smirked.

The yellow fox smiled back, side-hugging his friend briefly before they reached the elevator, choosing to take it up to the second floor to see Vector about possibly returning their EMP grenades and other stuff.

"Back so soon?" Vector said, spinning around in his chair to turn and face them.

"We're just here to return some stuff," said Sonic, picking the EMP grenades from his pockets, as did the rest of his friends.

"Did you even use any of these?" Vector pondered. "Looks like a full set to me. Either that, or you're so damn good that you didn't even need to use them."

"I used one," Tails said, putting his hand up and shrugging. "It was the only one needed, apparently. Those stun times need to be regulated a bit better."

"Hey, if it keeps the bad guys stunned for long enough, it works," said Vector. "We do need to work more on our bullets, though."

"I've been bringing that up with the tech division," Charmy said, flying in. "We've been thinking that maybe we should collaborate and make something different. Like, the bullet will shock anything even without any cyber parts."

"That sounds like a good idea," Tails smiled. "If you need some help, give me a call. I'd be more than happy to help."

"You can do that?" Vector asked. "I mean, I did read up on your files and such, but..."

"You bet your scaly green butt he can do that," Sonic vouched, placing his hand on the fox's shoulder. "He may be small, but he's incredibly smart. Like, could-build-a-rocket-out-of-scrap-metal smart."

"All right, don't oversell it," Tails smirked, pulling Sonic's hand away. "I could totally do that, though. And I'd probably still have enough parts left over to make a toaster."

Vector chuckled. "Regardless, if you don't think you need the grenades any longer, I'll hold onto them for you."

"Thanks," Knuckles said. "Much appreciated."

"Any time. Now get on up to Avery for your debriefing."

"Yes, Captain Crocodile," Sonic mock saluted.

"How did you know my superhero secret identity?" Vector asked, playing along before waving them away. "Go on. See the big bear."

Sonic chuckled as he and his friends turned around, deciding to exit the armoury and making their way for the stairs, taking them up to the third floor and immediately making their way to the briefing room, entering through and only seeing Avery and Ash in the room.

"Ah, there you all are!" said Avery. "Good to see that your first mission went relatively successfully."

"Yeah... relatively..." Knuckles mumbled, before speaking aloud. "The humans making the deal got away, and we didn't get anything."

"No license plate, no names, no idea of where they're going, no names," Sonic added, listing the things off as he counted them on his left hand. "Unless you've got a bloodhound like sense of smell, we're not going to be finding those bozos any time soon."

"I don't need a good sense of smell," Avery smiled. "Just a good set of surveillance cameras."

"That could be horribly misconstrued as something else if you weren't our commander," Knuckles said.

Avery shrugged that off as he turned to the screen behind him. "Ash, if you would..."

"Yeah, yeah," the mongoose joked as he pressed on the remote, showing an image of a large black truck moving before speaking. "Does this match the vehicle you saw?"

"It's like we said to Espio earlier," Tails said, "it could be any big black truck."

Ash smirked and pressed another button, showing the two humans getting out of the truck before speaking again. "How about now?"

Sonic looked and nodded. "Yeah, I'd say that matches the description."

"Well, it's not just a photo," Avery said, a hint of regret in his voice. "Show them, Ash."

The mongoose sighed and pressed a button, showing a video on the screen of the humans walking around, both briefcases in hand as they walked around to the back of the truck, opening the large door. Despite all the squinting, all that Sonic and the others could see was a few toes of a bare foot, unable to make out the rest.

"They kidnapped somebody?" Sonic asked.

Ash nodded as the video kept playing, and the two humans headed inside the truck, bringing the rest of her out. She was wearing a torn up red sundress, and her hands were tied up on her lap as a white cloth covered her mouth. Sonic took in her profile, seeing that she was a female pink hedgehog, but couldn't make out her eyes as she was blindfolded.

"Who is she?" Tails asked.

"We don't know yet," replied Avery. "But we suspect that she may have been kidnapped fairly recently, not long after they left the Gear Steers."

"Or not long after they got there..." said Sonic.

"What are you getting at?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, maybe Nack needs a little extra incentive to get his product across," replied Sonic. "Maybe Fokus just isn't doing so well on its own, so..."

"What, you're suggesting that Nack asked these dicks to kidnap some girl and sell her off to those other dicks?" the red echidna asked.

"I'm suggesting that he already had her," Sonic said, sitting up. "Maybe drugs aren't the only thing he's trying to sell off."

"A prostitution ring?" Tails said. "Just when I thought I couldn't hate that weasel more..."

"Do we have a lead on where the humans are?" asked Shadow.

"Not an exact one, but the truck was seen just around the Jade Mountain Restaurant," replied Avery.

"You mean that Chinese place?" Tails asked.

"The very same," replied Avery.

"Oh, not there," Knuckles moped. "They make the best ribs there..."

Sonic shook his head. "So, they're operating out of there?"

"It's not definite," Ash shrugged, "but it's the best one we've got so far."

"How do we go about this?" Tails asked. "We can't just show up at their door unannounced and flash our badges at them. That would cause too much of a scene."

"Not to mention that the humans could spot us if they were there," Sonic added. "And the possibility of civilian casualties."

"Well, whatever your choice is, you'd better make it quick," Avery said. "If you don't hurry, they might be out of there before you know it. They might even hop off to somewhere else, which would mean that we wouldn't be able to get to them."

"Yeah... the individual cities are very strict about their police forces," Tails said. "They don't like the forces crossing over into each other's territories."

"Which is odd, because I thought we all wanted the same thing," Knuckles said.

"It's nothing personal. It's just not our jurisdiction," said Avery with a shrug. "Anyway, whenever you're ready, go ahead and see Vector again if you need to, or just go to Jade Mountain. Up to you."

"I got no issue with going straight there," Knuckles shrugged.

"Me neither," Tails replied.

Sonic looked to Shadow. "What about you?"

"Would it make a difference?" Shadow asked. "If all three of you say yes, then there's no point in me trying."

Sonic chuckled. "Then it's unanimous, I think." He stood up, as did the others. "All right, let's get to it."

"Think you might need some backup?" asked Avery.

"Backup would be helpful," said Sonic. "But it depends on who's busy and who's up for it."

"Antoine and Bunnie are pretty much free," Ash said. "I think they're talking to Cosmo and Mina."

"Then let's go say hi," the blue hedgehog said.

All three then exited out of the room, taking the elevator to go down to the ground floor. As expected, there were Bunnie and Antoine speaking with Cosmo and Mina, smiling and even sharing some hot drinks of coffee.

"I hate to break up this lovely little chat you're having," Sonic said, "but we need some help."

"What's up?" Mina asked.

"Avery's got a lead on the humans who got away from us," Knuckles said. "They were last seen outside of Jade Mountain."

"That Chinese place that does the amazing ribs?" Antoine said. "I love those!"

Knuckles smiled. "See? Somebody gets it."

Bunnie shook her head. "We sure don't mind taggin' along with y'all. But what should we do while we're there?"

"We're thinking just surveillance, mostly," Sonic said.

"Ooh, cool," Antoine said. "We get to break out one of our vans."

"The ones with all of the awesome technology in them so it feels like you're in a spy movie?" Tails asked.

"The very same!"

Sonic looked between the two foxes, then smiled at Tails. "You want to go with them in the van, don't you?"

"Yes, please," the fox replied. "I mean, I'm not the best fighter, so... I think I'd be better off just hanging back anyway."

"Don't undersell yourself, dude," Knuckles said. "You're stronger than you get credit for."

It was then that Shadow spoke. "Before we go, I have a quick question, if I may."

"Who for?" Bunnie asked.

"You, oddly," Shadow replied. The robotic rabbit smiled at that, so he continued. "You mentioned how those mechanics at Gear Steers were acting strange when you went to see them. Did you see anything else off base?"

"They were just moving really slowly," replied Bunnie. "Didn't do much, got angry and really paranoid, and their eyes looked mighty red."

Sonic folded his arms. "Huh... I wonder if that's what Fokus does to people..."

"Or it could be marijuana," said Espio, popping his head out of a door.

"How do you know that?" asked Sonic.

"It wasn't me that found it out," the purple chameleon replied with a smile as he stepped out from the door.

Behind him was a large, light purple walrus wearing a lab coat and some surgical gloves on his hands. He took them off and extended a hand forwards to Sonic. "Hello, there. I'm Rotor."

Sonic shook the walrus' hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Rotor's the head of forensics," Espio explained. "He's been here a long time. Probably longer than Avery."

"That's pretty cool," Tails said. "I always thought I'd be a forensic scientist when I was younger."

"If you ever get too old for fieldwork, you know where to find me," Rotor chuckled.

"How'd you know that it was weed those mechanics were on?" Knuckles asked.

"It's part of the program whenever we take in a new inmate," replied Espio. "We take blood samples, and Rotor analyses it with the other eggheads at the lab."

"That's pretty quick, considering that we just brought them in earlier today," Knuckles noted.

"It's amazing how much technology has come so far," Tails replied, before then asking Rotor, "Was there traces of anything else in their blood?"

"Nothing just yet," Rotor replied. "We may need to take another sample just in case, but so far, it's just marijuana."

"Hard to believe that that's still illegal in this day and age," Knuckles said.

"What are you talking about?" Sonic said. "You don't even do any drugs."

"I'm Jamaican, dude," the red echidna replied. "You think I don't know my ganja?"

Sonic chuckled. "Duly noted." He then turned to Rotor. "Anyway, we'd better go. Thanks for the update, though."

"Good luck," the walrus replied.

"See y'all later!" Bunnie said to Rotor and Espio.

And with that, the group turned and headed for the doors to leave the building. As they said they would do, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow went to Knuckles' car, and Antoine, Bunnie, and Tails went to the van.

Tails let out a whistle as he saw it. "Nice digs..." he said, noting how similar the design was to the basic cars.

"Yeah, it looks pretty cool," Sonic called as he went to the front passenger seat of Knuckles' car.

"That doesn't count as shotgun if I'm not in the same car as you, dude," the yellow fox replied, chuckling.

"Hey, it's the little victories that count the most," Sonic shrugged.

Tails rolled his eyes, then Antoine spoke. "You ready to see the inside?"

"Um... yeah!"

"Try not to break anything," Bunnie playfully chided as she walked to the van, getting in the front with Antoine.

Tails nodded as he followed them, heading into the back and finding a small seat inside it. He took it and looked around him as several camera screens donned the walls, with control panels, radios, laptops, and other gadgets in front of them.

"Whoa... this is awesome..." he said.

"Try not to drool on anything," Antoine quipped.

"No promises..." Tails replied, still distracted.

A few feet away, Knuckles honked his horn two times. "All right, we're heading out! You guys ready?"

Antoine popped his head out of the van's window. "Ready when you are!"

"Remember, stay a little bit behind us! If we get caught together, then that's it!"

"Will do!"

Knuckles then pulled the car out from its parking space and began driving. After a decent minute and a half head start, the van started up as well, staying at a safe distance away from Knuckles' car.

"Let's hope that this goes well..." said Tails from the back of the van.

"Everything will be fine, cutie!" replied Bunnie. "Don't you worry."

 **At the Jade Mountain Restaurant...**

The two humans just pulled up in the front parking lot of the restaurant, thankful that it was completely empty at this time. The two suitcases they had gotten away with sat in the back of the truck along with their kidnapped victim, who was soundly asleep.

"Do you think that we got caught earlier?" asked one human.

"Doing what?" asked the other.

"Bringing her out of the truck just to knock her out again. We could have just as easily got into the back to do it."

"Eh, she was struggling a lot. We wouldn't have been able to hold her still in the back of the truck," the second one shrugged.

"True. And she was hard to take in the first place. Damn near knocked me out cold with that hammer she was swinging around..."

With that, they killed the engine of the truck, walking around to the back. They saw the hedgehog still unconscious, and the two suitcases next to her. Both humans got into the back, with one grabbing the suitcases, and the other grabbing the hedgehog, picking her up carefully.

"It's a good thing that Nack pretty much owns this place," said the first human. "If he didn't, and the people who worked here saw us hauling this little girl around, then there'd be trouble."

"I still can't believe that he thought it up," replied the other human. "But then again, maybe big cash isn't the only thing that people want. Sometimes, sex sells, and it sells well."

They then shut the truck's back door and locked the car from the outside with the car's keys before turning to go into the restaurant. Even though they knew Nack wasn't much for decor, they knew that he appreciated the lovely Eastern influences of the restaurant, with the waiters and waitresses wearing Chinese inspired clothing, and the Mandarin lettering donning the walls with English translations underneath them.

The two humans carried on as they were. Since there were no customers there at the moment, they didn't have to worry about possibly being caught; everybody that worked there knew about Nack's operation, and they were paid more than enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

They carried on as they were, picking up a small key on the way past. The walked past the bathrooms at the back and found a locked door with the words "Staff only" written in a small plaque just above the door's handle.

They unlocked the door and opened it, walking out to a small staircase. Overall, the main restaurant itself really only had the one floor, with the upstairs usually reserved for those that worked there. But since Nack bought it out, he'd turned it into his own little office.

The two humans made it up the stairs easily, unlocking another door also labelled "Staff only", in the same place above the door handle, and they opened the door, walking inside and seeing a few other doors.

"For such a small set up, Nack's got it pretty good here," said the first human.

"Yeah... his main office just ahead, the bathroom on the left, the kitchen to the left of that, and a bedroom in another room in the office?" The second one smirked. "He's got it pretty easy for sure."

They both shared a brief laugh at that and went to the main door, opening it up with their key and walking in to see Nack turned around in his chair. As soon as he heard the door, the purple weasel turned around, smiling at the humans.

"Ah... good to see that you both made it back in one piece," he said, his eyes travelling over the briefcases. "I take it that the deal didn't go to plan then?"

"Not exactly," the first human shrugged, placing the cases on Nack's desk. "But on the bright side, we keep the money and the drugs. It's a win-win, if you ask me."

"What went south?" Nack asked.

"Cops," replied the second human. "Rookies, at that. We managed to escape before the fighting got too serious, but the mechanics at Gear Steers instantly suspected us of siding with the police. We called the same thing on them, but they denied it."

"And do you believe them?" asked Nack.

"I do."

"What were the rookies like?" the weasel asked.

"They were Mobians," replied the first human. "There were four of them."

"And you managed to escape?" Nack said.

"Well, our truck is huge and black for one thing. We haven't changed the plates yet, but we'll get around to it," replied the second human.

Nack reached into his top desk drawer, pulling out a licence plate and throwing it onto the ground in front of the humans. "You'd better be quick about it."

"Will do," he replied, moving quickly.

"Not just yet," Nack said, standing from his seat and walking around the desk. "What about the girl?" he asked, looking at the hedgehog.

"We didn't get to use her as leverage," said the first human. "As we said, the cops busted the deal pretty early. Plus, considering how accepting the mechanics seemed to be, it seemed like we wouldn't have needed her."

The purple weasel nodded. "Fair point. All right, put her in the big room with the others. But if you lay a finger on her..."

"We haven't hurt her so far," the first human replied. "We only had to knock her out a couple of times with some morphine, and she was out like a light."

With that, the humans went over to the large room that Nack spoke of. They opened the door, seeing the sleeping forms of several other Mobians inside, and they walked in, removed her bonds, then laid her down gently in a bed next to a Mobian bat with white fur.

They walked out, locking the door behind them as they met back up with Nack in his office. "She's sound asleep."

"Good to hear," Nack replied. "So, were there any other troubles with the police?"

"Other than the fact that they beat and locked up the mechanics?" the other human replied. "Not really. We got out without suffering much."

"Yeah. All that you did was unintentionally put a potential client out of business and in jail," Nack responded coldly. "That is, of course, assuming that they got all of them."

"We didn't stay there long enough to find out, but let's say that they did."

Nack shook his head. "Humans..." he muttered under his breath, turning around to face them. "Look, just go and fix your plates on the truck then get to work downstairs, all right? I'll call you if I need anything."

"Should I pull the truck around the back?" asked the first human.

"No need. If the cops don't have a lead on us, then we shouldn't worry," Nack replied.

"I still can't believe that we both got janitor spots," the second human replied, leaning down to pick up the licence plate. "Where are the rest of the guys, anyway?"

"Well, let's just say, to be on the safe side, I had to get a new employee or two."

"That'd help. We could always use some extra hands in the kitchen," replied the first human.

"Just get out of here, will you?" Nack said.

The humans spoke an agreement in unison before turning around and exiting, making their way to the staircase and quickly locking the doors behind them as they reached the restaurant proper.

"I'll head outside to change the plates," said the first human, taking the plate from the other.

"Be careful out there," replied the second. "It might look quiet, but you never know."

"It's coming to nighttime, dude. This place won't be open for much longer."

With that, he exited out of the restaurant, but not before stopping and turning to see the staff in the kitchen. Nack was correct; there were new employees. And, just like the rest of the staff, they were also humans.

He shook his head and walked out of the restaurant, going over to the truck and walking around to the back, opening the doors to grab a toolbox from inside the back of the truck before hopping back out, sitting down in front of the plate and preparing to unscrew it.

"Here goes nothing..." he said to himself.

 **Half a mile away from Jade Mountain...**

Knuckles continued to drive, the GPS in his car indicating that he was closing in on the restaurant. Sonic, meanwhile, turned to check and make sure that the van was still following, before then turning to his left and noticing a highway that led up to a small hill.

"You see that spot?" Sonic asked into the small radio in Knuckles' car.

"We see it," replied Antoine over the radio.

"It'd probably be good if you drove over it. It's not too far from the restaurant, judging by the distance, and it'll keep you covered in the dark."

"All right. We'll hang back and survey the area."

"Roger."

The rest of the drive continued in silence, this time with Shadow looking over the back of Knuckles' car. Since he was in the backseat, it'd be easier for him to tell where the van was. Since it was already five cars and one motorcycle away, it was fairly easy to make out in the dark, and at the right time, the van pulled up onto the highway.

Knuckles smiled and drove the car around to the front parking lot of Jade Mountain, stopping just before entering the lot itself. The only other thing that he saw was a large black truck, catching a sidelong view of it along with seeing a human hopping out from inside the back of the truck, closing the doors to it.

"We've got to stay low... we can't risk getting seen..." Sonic said.

Knuckles nodded, turning the car around and driving past the front a little bit before parking his car up on a curb. He killed the engine and exited the car, closely followed by the others as they sneaked around to the front.

"It's a good thing that the parking lot isn't too big, otherwise getting inside would be a real pain in the ass," Sonic said.

"Something tells me that it won't be too easy either way," replied Knuckles. "We can't just up and walk in there. They'll probably know who we are by now."

"Then let's try not to act so obvious," Shadow said.

"How do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"How about we act like customers?" Shadow suggested. "We tell them we're grabbing a late night snack."

"Good point. Nack wouldn't want to cause too much trouble too early, and that goes double if he knows that we're after him," Sonic said, turning to Shadow. "Good thinking on the plan there, man."

The black and red hedgehog nodded in reply, and they all carried on walking around to reach the restaurant proper. They walked past the doors and looked around, seeing only the people behind the counter.

"I kinda wish we had earpieces..." Sonic said under his breath.

"That part could have gone better, but we were in a rush," said Knuckles, also keeping his voice quiet as they reached the counter, his face turning into a smile. "Hi there."

"Hey," said a female human, walking up to the counter. "The usual?"

"Please," the red echidna replied. "And some extra for my friends here."

The woman nodded, turning and calling out the order to the kitchen. Knuckles chose to wait at the counter whilst Sonic and Shadow found a seat by the window, the streetlights outside being one of the only sources of brightness, the other being cars that passed by.

After a minute or two, Knuckles walked over with three containers and three brown bags. The containers held the ribs in question, and he gave Sonic and Shadow a box each, whilst the bags held thickly cut chips that were already salted, and gave a bag each to Sonic and Shadow.

"So, how long have you been coming here?" asked Sonic as he chomped down a chip.

"Only recently. I started in the last couple of weeks we spend at the Academy," Knuckles replied.

"You came here during your off-time?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, when I could. Other times, I had to have it delivered in case I missed lunch," Knuckles shrugged.

Sonic then smiled, opening his container. "All right, let's see if these ribs are as good as you say they are."

Shadow opened his own container, copying his blue friend in grabbing a rib from the rack and placing it into his mouth, chewing some of the meat off of it before pulling the rest of the rib away, placing it back in the container.

"So, what do you think?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic nodded appreciatively. "I like it! Sweet and sour sauce already mixed in?" he guessed.

The red echidna nodded. "Yup! It helps give the meat some extra flavour." He then turned to Shadow. "How about you? You like?"

The black and red hedgehog nodded as he picked his rib up once again. "It's really good, I'll admit."

"See? Told ya," Knuckles grinned.

As they conversed, they noticed a door opening near the back of the kitchen, and several of the chefs walked out, with one of them mentioning something about taking a smoke break. As they left, the humans from earlier at the gas station exited the men's bathroom, instantly spotting the Mobians and walking over to them.

"What are you three doing here?" they asked.

"Just grabbing a snack," replied Sonic. "We don't mean to cause any trouble."

"Really?" asked the first human. "Say... where's that little fox friend of yours?"

"Back at the station studying like a good kid," Sonic shrugged.

In reply, one of the humans picked Sonic up by the collar of his shirt and threw him across the room, causing him to land just in front of the counter. Knuckles and Shadow dashed right over, leaning to pick their friend up, standing up with him.

"Don't want to cause trouble, huh?" said another voice. This one came from just behind the counter, so they turned to see the source of it, seeing Nack walk in from the back of the kitchen. "Considering your actions earlier today, it's a little too late for that..."

With that, the humans - those behind the counter included - pulled out guns, pointing them at Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles. Nack grinned, pulling his own out, as his two lackeys also followed suit, being the closest to the trio of Mobians.

"Well, ain't this great?" Knuckles asked sarcastically with a small gulp.

* * *

 **And that'll do it for another one! I know that this chapter is shorter than the others, but there is a good reason for it. You'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out. But don't worry! The next chapter will feature plenty of action to keep you all satisfied, I'm sure. Just trust me, okay? As always, take care, stay tuned, and all that jazz. See you then.**


	4. Shift

"Look, we just came here to grab some food is all," Sonic tried.

"I think we can knock off the bullshit now..." Shadow mumbled.

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "Can't blame a hedgehog for trying."

"What the hell makes you think that you can just waltz in here and enjoy our food?" asked a human from behind the counter.

"Is this a Mobian thing?" Knuckles asked. "I feel like it's a Mobian thing."

"It's a cop thing," Nack replied. "And soon, it'll be a dead cop thing."

"Good one-liner," Sonic smirked. "You been rehearsing?"

Nack walked close to Sonic, staring him down. "You must be the team leader, huh?"

"If you want, I could show you the badge to prove it," Sonic retorted.

"The only people you'll need to prove things to with that badge are the coroners," Nack said, before turning to his men. "Kill them."

As soon as the first bullet was fired, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles dived into different directions, each ducking under a table that they flipped over to use as cover. While the tables themselves were a solid steel, they weren't bolted to the floor, so they were easier to move around.

Shadow peeked around from behind his table to see Nack and his two main humans escaping, firing as they left to keep the officers off them. "They're getting away!" Shadow said.

"We'll catch have to up with them later!" Sonic replied. "For now, we have to get out of here! There's too many of them!"

Knuckles popped out of his cover briefly to fire, hitting one of the humans in the chest and causing blood to spurt out. "Now there's one less!" he called.

"I'll put down cover fire!" Shadow said. "You two get out of here. I'll catch up!"

"Be careful, okay?" Sonic said, standing and firing over the counter as he ran.

Knuckles caught up, standing and shooting, managing to hit another human, this time square in the shoulder, causing them to yelp in pain and drop their gun as blood began leaking from their new wound.

The red echidna soon rejoined his blue friend outside the front of the restaurant, and they dashed for Knuckles' car, hopping in as Shadow ran out of the Jade Mountain. Knuckles switched on the ignition and drove close to Shadow, turning the car to its side.

"You'll have to jump in!" the echidna called.

Shadow waited for a few seconds before the right time arose, and he ran and hopped over the back of the car, landing in the seat and ducking as Knuckles put the roof of the convertible vehicle up.

"You know, maybe getting a car with a removable roof wasn't your best idea," Sonic said as they cleared the parking lot.

"I've had this baby for three years, and now you're telling me it was a bad idea?" Knuckles said.

"We weren't getting shot at back then, so it seemed a lot safer," Sonic replied.

Shadow chuckled. "In retrospect, maybe we should have seen this coming."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, three years ago was when we finished college. We joined the academy not long after. In that window of time, Knuckles got the car. As all of us were about to start at Green Hill Academy, not one of us thought that getting shot at would be a problem."

"Plus, it makes getting into the car a lot easier," Knuckles added. "So, where to?"

"We've got to get to Tails and the others in the van," Sonic said. "Let's hope they found a lead on where Nack and his two goons were heading."

Just a moment later, there was the sound of a truck screeching out onto the main road, heading directly in front of Knuckles' car and taking off. Without needing to say anything, the red echidna changed direction to follow it, speeding after it.

"It's times like these that an alarm would make clearing the roads a lot easier," Knuckles said.

Sonic shook his head as he grabbed the car's radio. "Tails, you there?"

"Yeah, we saw. We're coming down from the hill," the fox replied. "I guess there's no point in being sneaky now, huh?"

"You'd think we'd have learned the first time, but no," Sonic chuckled. "All right, stay close to us."

"Is this close enough?" said a voice. Not from the radio, but from next to them. Sonic turned to his left and saw Bunnie, who grinned and waved.

"That's close enough!" Sonic chuckled, speaking into the radio as he waved back.

"I'm going to hop back into the car with you guys!" Tails said.

"Why? I thought you were having fun in the van," Sonic replied.

"I was, but I ain't missing this chase for my life!" the two-tailed fox answered.

"We'd join you," Antoine spoke, "but we need to head back to base to report to Avery. We've got to let him know what's happened, and we need backup, too."

"Fair enough," Sonic said. "You two just be careful, okay?"

Bunnie nodded, then spoke. "There's a small path just up ahead. We'll stop there and drop Tails off, then we'll be on our way."

"You got it."

After a few more seconds, they reached the small path in question, and the van pulled over, allowing Tails to hop out of the back of it as Knuckles stopped his car just short of the path, Shadow opening the side door to let Tails in.

"Driving with the top up?" Tails asked Knuckles as he got in. "On a night such as lovely as this?"

"Eh, we figured that it makes good protection against bullets," the echidna shrugged.

Sonic turned to Bunnie and Antoine as the latter of the two opened his window, standing on the step that led to the van before speaking. "You guys going to be okay on your own for a while?"

"We'll have to be," Sonic shrugged.

"We'll try to be as quick as we can," the coyote stated. "Just be careful, and try not to die on your first night, okay?"

"Trust me, we're trying as hard as we can," Sonic said. "We'll see you later."

"Yeah, hopefully with a crap-ton more cops," Knuckles added.

"Y'all take care of yourselves out there!" Bunnie said, waving from behind Antoine as the coyote shut his van door.

As he started to turn his van around, Knuckles floored his accelerator, beginning to drive quicker. Since there was a decent amount of traffic, he knew that he had to be careful, but he also knew that they wouldn't waste any more time than they had already.

"Anybody see them yet?" Sonic asked.

Tails peeked his head out from his window. "Not yet. It's hard to make out a big black truck when it's almost midnight."

"You couldn't follow a trace in the van?" Knuckles asked.

"We barely picked anything up when I was there," the fox shrugged. "Can't see the plates, can barely make out the faces... we've got no chance."

"Let's hope that we don't have to wait too long to find them," Sonic said.

At that moment, the sight of a bullet pinging against the gravel road next to the blue hedgehog made itself known, and he looked in the rear-view mirror. He pulled out his gun and started rolling down his window.

"Looks like we didn't have to wait long..." he said, turning to Tails. "You still got your gun?"

Tails nods. "Imagine that... a car chase and a shootout, and we're not even past our first day yet."

"Life really does move fast after you finish at the academy," Sonic smirked. "All right, we'll try and keep them off. Knuckles, drive."

"It's what I'm good at!" the echidna replied as he kept going.

Sonic peeked out of his window and saw two cars closing in, both of which had arms holding guns peering out of every one of their windows sans those of the drivers, and they began to fire once more. Sonic ducked his head back in as Shadow took a shot, managing to take out one of the cars' headlights.

"It is really hard to shoot straight when you're driving this fast..." he muttered as he fired again, hitting the front bumper of the car.

"Try to take out their tyres!" Sonic said, aiming low and firing.

"We've got to be careful!" said Tails. "There's some civilians on the road, too!"

"It's not too many, but you're right!" Sonic nodded.

Tails started firing, managing to hit one of the passenger drivers through the window right in his head, causing blood to splatter over the front of it. Frustrated, the driver of said car took his fallen comrade's gun and peeked his head out to fire at Knuckles' car, hitting the side-view mirror on his side.

"Do these guys have no respect for how much went into this car?" Knuckles said.

"I thought you bought it like this?" Sonic replied.

"Three years I've had this thing, dude. A lot of work has gone into it," the echidna sighed.

"We'll get it fixed when we're done being shot at, okay?"

Sonic shook his head after he replied before firing low again, and this time landing, causing the further away of the two opposing cars to stop and attempt to pull over, only to fail and swerve sideways before tripping and sliding forward a few feet before landing on its roof.

"Good shot," Tails said.

"I try," the hedgehog shrugged before he resumed firing. "We got one more to go!"

Shadow kept quiet as he also kept firing, leaning more diagonally and hitting the shooter behind the remaining driver, striking him in the chest and causing blood to spurt out. As his body fell limply, his fellow goon in the backseat with him kicked open the car door, letting the dead one fall out, hitting the ground rolling.

"That was just messed up..." Knuckles noted as he looked back.

"Hey, I just shot him. I didn't turn the fucker into a rag-doll," Shadow replied, shooting more.

"Focus your fire on the driver," Sonic said, shooting at the driver in question.

Knuckles kept his eyes focused on the road when a bullet hit the driver's side window, causing some of the glass to shatter and spill out, with a couple of the shards landing in his arm through the jacket he wore.

"Fuck!" he yelled out.

"You going to be okay?" Tails asked.

"I'll be fine! Just take these pricks out!" Knuckles called, focusing on his driving as he reached his hand over to pick the shards out, blood lightly trickling as he pulled the glass from his arm. "Damn..."

Shadow grunted and focused fire on the driver, focusing as he pulled the trigger. The bullet travelled through the air and hit the front window, causing come glass to crack in front of the driver as the bullet hit him right in the throat, causing him to instantly gurgle and panic. He placed a hand up to the front of his neck as he swerved uncontrollably around before the car met a similar fate to the first one, but instead of flipping over, this one turned into a barricade, crashing instantly.

"That's one problem taken care of," Tails said. "You still got them, Knuckles?"

"I lost visual," the red echidna said, shaking his head.

Shadow panted a bit. "I've got an idea."

"Yeah?" Sonic said. "What do you got for us?"

Shadow smiled. "Pull the car over and turn it around. We're going to do some interrogation."

"But everyone's dead," Tails pointed out.

"Eh, there's bound to be some survivors in that first car, at least," Shadow said.

Knuckles shrugged. "What do you think, Sonic? You're our field leader."

"If Shadow thinks it's a good idea, I say we go for it," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

The red echidna chuckled as he turned the car around. "I'm going to lose so much gas by the time this is all over..."

Then he drove back to the more recent car they'd taken out, stopping just next to it as Tails hopped out of Knuckles' car. He walked over to the side of the enemy car, looking inside and grimacing at the sight and smell of the newly created corpses. He looked in both the backseat and the front seat, placing his fingers on their necks for any pulses, but shook his head.

"I got nothing here," Tails shrugged, getting back into Knuckles' car. "I guess that's what they get for not wearing their seat-belts."

"On to the next one," Sonic said.

Knuckles kept driving along. Luckily, it didn't take long for them to reach the first car they'd taken out. With it being on its back and all, it was a lot easier to spot in the darkness. Knuckles pulled his car over, and all four of them exited.

"Easier with all of us looking," Tails said.

"Yeah..." Shadow replied as he saw a hand twitching. He turned to his friends with a smirk. "Way, way easier." He walked over to the twitching hand and pressed his boot onto it heavily, earning a groan from below.

"Arrrgggh! What the fuck is wrong with you?" the voice, a gruff male one, grunted.

"Looks like we've got our man," Sonic said.

His black and red hedgehog friend smiled and leaned down to grab the human out from his car, dragging him out harshly across the gravel and earning more complaints and groans of pain. Shadow took in the man's appearance, only seeing a face marked crimson with blood, his clothes coloured the same.

"We have a few questions that we'd like to ask you," Sonic said, walking over.

"Fuck you!" the human replied. "Fuck both of you!"

"Dinner first," Shadow said, grabbing the man by the collar and slamming his back hard against the fallen car. "Or at least get me a drink or two."

The male moaned in pain. "Whatever you want from me, you ain't getting it!"

"If that's the case, we'll just have to give you the longer, more painful death," Shadow said.

"What's the difference between that and killing me regularly?" the human asked.

The black and red hedgehog chuckled, reaching a hand back to pull out his gun, pressing the muzzle against the human's head. "The quicker way is me pulling this trigger and splattering your brains all over your car. The longer way is me holding your face against the gravel while my buddy Knuckles drives over the highway."

"I'll do it too," Knuckles nodded. "I don't take too kindly to ass-holes who try to kill me and my friends, or ass-holes that shoot my car."

"So, just ass-holes," Sonic grinned.

"Pretty much."

"I ain't telling you shit!" the human yelled. "Nack's going to have your heads on his wall for this!"

"Eh, I guess every villain's got some psychotic fetish of sorts," replied Shadow as he started carrying the human to Knuckles' car.

"W-What are you doing?!" the human asked, panicking.

"What I said I'd do; give you a long, slow, excruciatingly painful death," Shadow said.

"D-Don't! I'll tell you where they are!"

The black and red hedgehog held the human against Knuckles car, pointing his gun at his head. "Talk."

"They're heading up to Star Light City! Please, you've got to believe me!"

Shadow smiled. "Thank you for your cooperation." He then slammed the bottom of his gun against the man's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Well, Star Light City's not too far away," said Sonic.

"But that place has one of the lowest crime rates in the world," Tails replied. "Why would Nack be heading there?"

"Maybe he wants to increase that crime rate a little bit," Knuckles shrugged. "What better way to corrupt a peaceful city than with hookers and drugs, eh?" He shook his head. "I'll get on the radio to call dispatch in. Come on."

The others followed him into the car, with Sonic hopping back into the front seat as Knuckles got back behind the wheel. Tails and Shadow got in the back, and Knuckles started the car back up and began driving while he grabbed the radio from his dashboard.

"Dispatch, do you copy?" he asked.

"We do indeed," said a voice. "Sup, big red?"

Knuckles smirked. "We need a coroner on Green Hill Highway."

"We'll be there as quick as we can," replied the voice. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. After the cops are done there, tell them they need to catch up with us at Star Light City. That's where Nack and his cronies are heading next."

"Thanks for the help, dude," Knuckles said, putting the radio away.

"Who was that?" Tails asked.

"Charmy, I think," the red echidna shrugged.

"Well, he does handle some of the technological stuff," Tails shrugged. "Makes sense."

"Or he was just closest to the radio at the time," Sonic smirked.

"Also a possibility," Tails said.

Knuckles frowned before speaking. "I just had a thought..."

"That's never a good thing," Shadow teased.

Knuckles ignored that. "My thought is, isn't this a bad idea? Like Tails said earlier, the police forces of the individual cities don't like it when others cross over."

"Like we give a shit," Sonic answered. "Nack was our case first. If Star Light's got an issue with that, then they can take it up with Avery."

"As much as I like him, I don't think he'd be able to protect us if we get caught out," Tails said. "Especially with that call for backup."

"It feels like twice the amount now," Sonic replied. "I wonder if Bunnie and Antoine had as much success asking for help as we did..."

"Who knows?" Knuckles shrugged. "Whatever the case, let's hope they get here in time... we're going to need all the help we can get."

 **Meanwhile, just entering Star Light City...**

"All right, we've lost the cops by now," said a human as he drove the truck.

Nack nodded. "Good." He turned to the back of the truck. "How are the girls doing?"

"They're still out, boss," replied the other human.

The purple weasel smiled. "You know, I never did find out your names."

"And you never will," replied the first human. "Sorry, boss, but we like our anonymity."

"And besides, you don't pay us to talk much," the other replied as they approached a turn past a park, choosing to go left. "So, where do we go now that we're in the city?"

"I've got a warehouse set up by a friend of mine near the pier," replied Nack. "We can hang out there for a while until this shit with the cops dies down."

"What if some of the cops in this city know that we're here?"

"We only had those three idiots following us," Nack said. "It's unlikely that they brought much backup with them."

The human nodded, remaining silent as the drive continued to the warehouse. The garage to the front of it opened, and they drove in, parking the large black truck to the side before stopping and killing the engine.

Unlike most warehouses, this one wasn't as large as most others, as it was once a warehouse/shop combo, where one could buy things for pretty low prices. It had a watchtower in the middle with an elevator and stairs that led up to the crow's nest, and what was a cafe on a high platform with stairs that led up to it was now barren and empty, with most of the perfect white paint chipped, and the metal that held the railings to the side had rusted over time.

"You've got to feel sorry for the poor schmucks who lost their jobs at this place," said the first human.

"I don't. It's what they get for letting Nack by them out," the second human smirked. "And besides, it gives us more room to move around. That Chinese restaurant doesn't have a patch on this place."

Nack turned to face the humans, somewhat thankful that they hadn't moved away from the truck yet. "Did you grab all of the girls?"

"There's only four of them, boss. We got them all."

"Good. Take them to the beds and leave them to sleep." He reached into his seat of the truck and grabbed the briefcases containing the money and Fokus. "We've got work to do."

"Where do we start?"

"We start with hiding for now. We try to find some good contacts in the city," Nack said.

"You might not find much. Star Light's a lot friendlier than most other places when it comes to crime."

"Then let's make it a lot unfriendlier," Nack grinned. "We start with the girls. So, get them to bed."

"All right, fine," said the humans in unison.

They both walked around to the back of the truck, opening the doors up and peeking inside to see the girls sleeping. Along with the pink hedgehog and white bat, they also had a female red fox and a pink-furred echidna with some metallic dreadlocks, as well as her left arm being metallic.

"Hard to believe we've even got an enhanced hooker back here," the first human said as he grabbed the echidna by the feet, carefully pulling her out of the van.

"Hey, there's a lot of stuff on the market when it comes to sex these days," the second human shrugged as he grabbed the echidna's arms, helping the other human drag her in midair to the beds.

"Be careful with her," Nack warned.

"We know, boss. We won't hurt her," one of the humans said.

 **Just approaching Star Light City...**

"That was a lot more far away than I thought it'd be," Sonic said as the car stopped.

"Yeah, well, we're in the city," Knuckles said. "Now we just need to be careful, and we need to find where Nack went."

Tails looked at a nearby park, seeing some people there. "It's a bit late for them to be out here, isn't it?"

Sonic shrugged. "Low crime rate. They've got nothing to worry about." He opened his car door. "Come on. Let's go talk to them."

"How do you think they're going to take to cops from outside their city?" Knuckles asked as he killed the engine.

"Hopefully, with the sense of respect and courtesy that the local authoritative force deserves," Sonic grinned.

"Look at you, using the big words," Tails smirked as he closed his car door, also getting out.

"You're not the only one who reads, nerd," Sonic playfully teased. "All right, let's do this."

They all walked to the park, and saw a Mobian cat with orange fur playing around on his phone. He was wearing a large coat and some baggy jeans as it was cold out, with black boots covering his feet.

"Hello, sir," Sonic said.

The cat stopped his playing, smiling at the blue hedgehog. "Hi. Can I help you?"

Sonic nodded, pulling out his ID badge. "We're with Green Hill Police Department. We need information."

"Green Hill?" The cat chuckled. "You're a long way from home, dude."

"We gathered," Shadow mumbled.

"Well, just as long as you're aware. If Dingo finds out, he'll kick your asses out of the city in a heartbeat," the cat said.

Tails nodded. "We know about him."

"Oh yeah?" The cat looked the fox up and down. "When did you start this whole cop job?"

"This morning," Tails replied seriously.

The cat shook his head. "Ah... young bucks always start thinking that they're invincible..."

"You a cop, too?" Sonic asked.

"I am indeed," the cat replied. "And I've been a cop for a lot longer than this morning."

"Can we get to the point?" Shadow grunted.

"Easy, dude," Knuckles said to the black and red hedgehog.

Sonic sighed and turned to the cat. "We just need to know if you saw a large black truck around."

"I didn't really see anything," the cat said. "It's hard to see something like that in the darkness. All I know is that I heard a vehicle of some sort pass by earlier, and it was moving pretty fast. I couldn't make out what it was, though."

"Got a direction?" Tails asked.

"My best guess would probably be the pier. I remember the tyres screeching, so they could only turn one of two ways, and I know that they sure as heck didn't pass the long road outside the park."

"Thanks for your help," Sonic said. "Sorry if we seem a bit off. Been a long first day."

"If there's anything that you're off for, it's being in the wrong damn city," the cat shook his head. "Go on and get your bad guys."

"Thanks again," Sonic replied.

As they turned around, they saw a police car drive up. Since they were in Star Light City, the car had the main colours of the city's police department: dark green for the main body, with a light yellow stripe going along the side of it. The tyres looked the same as the G.H.P.D. tyres, but the logo was completely different. It had several stars forming a small circle which was inlaid into a pair of crossed swords, with the words "Star Light Police Department" written in a slanted style under the swords.

"I do like that logo," Knuckles whistled as the two cops got out of their car, wearing uniform similar to the ones that G.H.P.D. had, except with the initials S.L.P.D. that ran over the face of a star on contrast to the Green Hill's signature bear. Much like the Green Hill uniform, the logo was over the left breast of the uniform.

Sonic saw the cops, then turned his head to the cat from earlier. "Did you call for them?"

"I did not," the cat replied, standing from his bench and walking over to the cops. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, we heard that there's been some disturbance around here not long ago," said the first cop, a male wolf with black fur.

The cat chuckled. "That would have to do with our new friends!" he said, pointing to Sonic as group. "They weren't the cause of the noise, but they're hoping to prevent any more of it."

"I ain't seen you two around these parts much," the other cop drawled, a caiman with brown scales.

"That's because we're not from around these parts," Sonic said, pulling out his badge, as did the other three on his side. "We're from Green Hill."

"They're fresh out of the academy," the cat added.

"If you ain't from around these parts normally, then you have no business being here at all," said the caiman.

"Not this shit again..." Shadow muttered under his breath.

"Look, we're on a case, and it led us here," Sonic said. "We just want to take care of it, then we'll be out of your hair." He turned to the caiman. "Or scales, in your case."

The wolf spoke. "Got a lead?"

"Yeah. Kitty cat here says that they went down to the pier," replied Knuckles.

Sonic then grinned. "Look, I know that it's against the rules for cops to cross over into other jurisdictions, but we could use the help. We've tried catching these guys twice already, and both times we've just fallen short at the last moment."

The wolf shook his head. "Well, different city or not, rookie or not, a cop is a cop."

"You can't be serious?" the cat asked.

"I am serious." The wolf turned to Sonic. "We'll lead the way to the pier. You stay behind us."

"No argument here," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

The Star Light cops got into their car, with the cat joining them, and started it up. They didn't turn the siren on since they didn't want to alert the bad guys of their presence. Behind them, Knuckles started up his own car as his friends joined him.

"Should I cancel that backup call now that we have these guys helping us out?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic shook his head. "Nah. It's quite a drive from Green Hill to Star Light. And besides, if they turn up, they turn up. They'll show soon."

"All right, we're hauling out, boys!" said the caiman from the Star Light car.

"You lead, we'll follow!" Sonic called back.

The police car then started driving forward, turning left towards a wide alleyway. They kept following this path until they reached the pier that the cat was talking about. The pier itself was huge, with many boats tied up to it, all of which were not being used as it was still rather late at night.

The cars continued on the path of the pier until they saw a large warehouse up ahead. They carefully continued to move forward, and instead of parking outside, they stopped and turned to hide their cars behind a large boathouse nearby the entrance of the warehouse.

Both groups got out of their respective cars, and the Star Light police led the way, with Sonic and his crew hanging back as they followed. They made it around to the front door of the warehouse, which was a metal one they had to lift up. Knuckles lifted it with ease, but was careful not to make too much noise. As he held it, the others made it under and went through, with Knuckles following them soon, carefully lowering the door in the hopes of making as little noise as possible.

"That was close..." Knuckles whispered.

Sonic nodded. "No shit," he whispered back, before turning to the wolf. "Want to split up?"

The wolf nodded. "Me and my guys will go around the right and to the back. You guys check out the left side."

"We'll meet back up around the back if we can't find anything," Tails said.

With that, the groups separated, with Sonic leading his group through the left side of the warehouse. As they passed, they caught the two humans leaning against a shelf in the middle of an aisle, with one of them smoking a cigarette. Quickly, Sonic and the others ducked behind the shelf closest to them.

"So, do you think Nack will have to come up with a new plan now that he's in a new city?" one human asked, the one with the smoke in their lips.

"It might take him a while, but he can make it up," the other replied.

"This is different, though. When it came to Green Hill, he had a plan because he knew he was going to get caught back at Marble Stone City. This one is a little bit more impromptu."

"Let's just hope he comes up with something quick. We're the only guys with him right now. We need to watch our backs."

As he said that, Sonic nodded to his group to move, and they pressed on as quietly as they could manage, moving across to the other shelf to hide behind there. Unfortunately, as he was moving the fastest, Sonic's shoe scuffed the floor, emitting an accidental squeaking noise.

"The hell was that?" asked the first human, throwing his cigarette down and crushing it under his boot.

"Fuck..." the blue hedgehog whispered under his breath.

"Who's there?" the human said, pulling his gun out as he moved forward. His friend followed suit.

"Stay back and wait here..." Sonic said, putting his gun behind him in his jeans as he stood up. "When I give the signal, you guys come out and shoot, got it?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic smirked. "Surrendering."

He then sighed and raised his hands up so that they were at level with his head, the palms facing outwards as he stepped out from behind the shelf to reveal himself to the humans, who both held their guns up at him.

"If you don't leave right now, then the next thing you're going to hear is this gun being fired," threatened one of the humans as he pulled the hammer back, cocking his weapon.

"There's no need," Sonic said. "I surrender."

"Prove it." The other human said. "Gun. Now."

Sonic sighed, reaching behind his back to pull the gun from his jeans. He placed it on the floor. "Better?"

"Kick it over here."

"Why don't you come and get it?" Sonic asked. "You're going to kill me anyways, right? What difference does it make?"

"Kick the gun over now!" the human said. "You hear me?"

Sonic nodded. "I heard you. You said... NOW!"

With that, he dove back, allowing Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow to come out from behind the shelf and get in front of Sonic. Before the humans could suspect anything, the three Mobians fired at the humans, hitting them all straight in the chest, causing them to fall back.

"Huh. That was close," Sonic said, walking over to pick his gun up.

"That was a really, really dumb plan," Shadow said.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Sonic shook his head. "Let's try to find Nack."

The others followed as the cobalt hedgehog walked forward, leading the way. As they were walking, however, Shadow noticed something. He stopped in his path, then looked down at the humans that they had felled earlier.

"What are you waiting for?" Knuckles asked, walking over to grab his friend's arm. "We've got to go!"

Shadow held a finger up as he shrugged off the echidna's grip. "Didn't you find it strange that no blood flew from them when we shot them?"

"I hadn't noticed," Knuckles shrugged. "It's pretty dark in here."

"Armour?" Sonic asked.

Before Shadow could reply, he felt something grab his leg. He looked down to see one of the humans pulling and twisting on Shadow's ankle, causing him to fall down. Knuckles tried to move and help his friend, but his own feet were stuck in place.

"These guys sure do have a strong grip!" Knuckles said as he tried to move his feet to no avail.

Sonic started moving over, but Shadow shook his head. "You go on with Tails! We'll take care of these two!"

"You better not die on me!" Sonic replied as he rushed off, Tails following behind.

The humans let go of the Mobians, and stared them down as they engaged in fighting stances. Knuckles focused on his human, dodging a jab that came his way, then defending a lunging hook to his body. As he went to strike back with a kick to the human's torso, he was suddenly rushed and tackled to the ground, the human raining down fists on the echidna's face, which he barely blocked. Even then, they still hurt like hell.

"What does Nack feed you guys?" Knuckles asked as he kept getting hit.

"What's it matter to you?"

The red echidna struggled and reached his hands under his foe's armpits, sitting up and locking their elbows briefly before using the leverage to stand up. Since their faces were so close, Knuckles quickly moved his head back, then snapped it forward, head-butting the human, hitting right on the nose.

The human backed away, wiping some blood from his nose. Between the two, he was much more dazed, although Knuckles' own head throbbed dully from the clash. The human charged forward once more, but was met with a knee directly on the chin, causing him to fall flat on his face and knocking him unconscious.

Knuckles shook his head. "Strong arms, but a glass jaw... I guess you're not as enhanced as we thought you were."

He then turned to see Shadow clinched against the nearest shelf as his opponent landed several hard punches on the black and red hedgehog's body. Knuckles started moving to help his friend, but the rush forward caused the pain of the earlier head-butt to storm in on him.

"Ooh... that doesn't feel good..." he said, holding his noggin.

Shadow, still in trouble, tried something risky. As he was getting punched, he reached his hand down to stop the next fist from connecting before using what little momentum he had to push the human away. He then placed one leg over the humans arm before jumping and spinning around, catching him in an arm-bar. Without mercy, he pulled hard on the arm, causing a popping sound, closely followed by a groan of agony from the human.

"Good work," Knuckles smiled as his friend stood up.

"That arm was hard to snap," Shadow said. "Looks like his enhancements made it a bit tougher."

"Hey, their bones can still break. That's got to be good for something," Knuckles shrugged.

"You think you won just because we're down?" said the human, kneeling up as he held his limp arm. "It ain't over yet..."

Shadow sighed. "As long as your mouth gets shut, I'll consider that a small victory." He then kicked the human hard across the face, knocking him out cold and causing him to fall sleepily to the ground.

"Let's go help the others," said Knuckles.

Sonic and Tails had managed to get a fair distance into the shop, and were hiding behind some shelves they came across. They peeked around, not seeing Nack at the ground level. They started moving closer, then saw the group of Star Light cops coming around from the back.

Without speaking, the wolf gestured to himself and his group to go up to deal with Nack, then pointed at Sonic and Tails to a place that neither could see too well. Regardless, the two nodded, and the plan went on.

Carefully, as the Star Light group made their way up the steps to the cafe where they saw Nack, Sonic and Tails made a beeline for the place the wolf had pointed. Once there, they saw several Mobian girls sleeping.

Sonic looked over the pink hedgehog one, and she started to stir. She slowly opened her eyes, coming directly into contact with Sonic's face. She was about to scream, but the blue hedgehog quickly put a hand over her mouth.

"Shh... we're here to help you..." he said. "My name's Sonic. The fox is Tails. We're with Green Hill Police Department." He then removed his hand, thankful that the female hedgehog didn't take the chance to cry out. He pulled out his badge as proof, then put it back. "We're the good guys. You can trust us." He held a hand to help her up. "What's your name?"

"Amy..." she said. "So, we're in some creepy warehouse in Green Hill?" she asked.

"We're actually in Star Light," Tails pointed out. "But it's a really long story that we don't have time for right now." He then looks over the white bat. "Wait... Rouge?"

Sonic's ears perked up. "Shit, really?"

Tails nodded. "Yep. It's her."

"Who is Rouge?" asked Amy.

"A former friend of one of our cops," Sonic answered.

Amy smiled. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Give us five hours, and it will have officially been an entire day," Tails said as Rouge stirred.

Before the pink hedgehog could speak, Shadow and Knuckles managed to make it over. "Hey. You okay?" Knuckles asked Amy.

"I'm fine."

"Knuckles and Shadow, this is Amy. Amy, Shadow and Knuckles," Sonic introduced.

Shadow nodded in greeting before walking over to Tails, looking and seeing Rouge. "Is that..."

"Yes it is," Tails replied. "You going to be okay rescuing her?"

"I'll live..." Shadow grunted.

With that, the other two woke up. The purple echidna was first, and she shook her head. "What... where am I?"

"You're in a creepy-ass warehouse," Knuckles said. "We're cops, here to save you."

The red fox next to her also arose. As she opened her eyes, she saw Knuckles showing his badge to the purple echidna, whose name the fox herself found out to be Julie-Su. They were both kidnapped after bumping into each other by accident at a fast food place, being captured as they were leaving.

"You okay, Julie-Su?" the fox asked.

The purple echidna nodded. "I'll be fine, Fiona..."

Rouge finally started to wake up. Her eyes cracked open, and she saw Shadow and Tails stood over her. Her weariness turned to delighted shock as she saw the black and red hedgehog, and she sat up.

"Well, well, well... if it ain't my old partner in crime..." she grinned, then seeing Tails. "And fox boy... you've grown so much over the months. How long has it been?"

"We'll have to save the chit-chat for later," Tails said. "Right now, we've got to get you out of here. Backup's on the way."

"Backup?" Rouge said. "Oh, yeah. It feels like yesterday that Shadow was telling me he was signing up for the academy. How'd it go?"

"Well, we've been doing this for about a day now. Surprisingly, it's not too bad," Tails shrugged.

"Much as I'd love to stay behind and talk," Sonic said, "we've got to get a move on."

"Should we help the Star Light guys?" asked Knuckles.

Sonic shook his head. "They're three veteran cops against some Pablo Escobar wannabe. I think we have the advantage."

Shadow then spoke. "How about two of us go up and help, and the others get the girls out of here?"

"Aw, you're leaving me behind?" Rouge smirked.

Sonic grinned. "Not quite. Knuckles, you're with me. Tails, Shadow, you get the ladies out of here. Got it?"

"You're the boss," Tails said, turning to the girls. "Can you all walk okay?"

Amy nodded. "I never thought I'd jump at the chance to be awake this late at night," she chuckled.

"All right, let's get you out of here," Shadow said.

"Want to hold my hand?" Rouge spoke.

Shadow ignored the white bat's teasing, and the group began moving away, being quiet as they made their way back to the entrance of the warehouse, knowing that it was a decent distance away, but moving as quickly as they could.

As they moved, Sonic nodded at Knuckles, and the two went up the stairs to the cafe. They caught up with the cops from Star Light, who were all keeping a low profile, hiding behind a vending machine. Sonic and Knuckles hid in the closest one to them, nodding at the other police in a form of communication.

No other words needed to be spoken, so the two groups moved forward, forming as a unit as they approached Nack, who was on his phone and talking with somebody. He chuckled to himself as he flicked a lighter back and forth in his other hand.

"All right... we'll do the deal in three days. See you then." He then hung up, leaning over to write something in a small notebook. "All right, will whoever is behind me stop what they're doing?"

Sonic and the others all stood up, pointing their guns at Nack as the wolf spoke. "How about you stop what you're doing?"

Nack turned around, holding his hands up. "Nice comeback."

Knuckles grunted. "Look, just drop the phone and come with us, okay? Nobody needs to get hurt."

"What about my men? Did they need to get hurt?" Nack replied.

"They're breathing," Knuckles said. "Although, if I'd had my way, they wouldn't be."

The purple weasel grinned. "Looks like they put some good hurt on you before you beat them."

Sonic then spoke. "This doesn't have to drag on any longer. Drop your shit, and come with us."

Nack sighed and put his hands back down. "Here's the thing about cops," he started, pressing something into his phone. "You all have this sense of moral judgement and code all of the time, but when you have the bad guy cornered, you only give them the option of jail. Doesn't everybody deserve a fair shot?"

"Pushing prostitution, drugs, and selling out your own guys to avoid jail time?" Sonic chuckled. "Yeah. That sounds real fucking fair to me."

Nack chuckled then threw his phone down, and it landed directly between the caiman's feet as it started beeping. "How's this for fair; you have ten seconds before that phone explodes. That's my end of the deal held up, as I told you how much time you have left. In response, you give me a head start." He grinned darkly. "Ready... set... go..."

The phone's beeping rapidly sped up, and Sonic and the others dived away to avoid it, only to find out that it was a smoke bomb. It had a wide radius, and everyone had to keep from choking on the fumes of the smoke before the wolf spoke, his mouth covered.

"You and Knuckles go after him!"

Sonic then heard sirens from outside. "Those better be our guys!"

"We'll find out for you!" the cat said. "Get going!"

Sonic and Knuckles got up and dashed through the smoke, keeping their eyes covered as it started to dwindle down. They searched around for Nack before Knuckles spotted him from over the balcony, seeing him head for the back door.

Sonic and Knuckles ran down the stairs quickly and also went for the back door. They just managed to see Nack turn left as they came out of the door, and they ran after him in the hopes of catching up.

The two rounded the corner and stopped as they heard the sound of an engine. They moved faster still and found their way to the main part of the pier, just in time to see Nack placing the briefcases down before starting up a speedboat.

"Stop, Nack!" Sonic said. "That's enough!"

Nack turned around. "If you're going to stop me, then you'd better get to it!"

Before Sonic and Knuckles could answer, the two humans from earlier ran up behind them, knocking them down before jumping onto the boat with Nack. As the weasel started the boat up, he turned to Sonic.

"You should have taken your shot when you had it!"

With that, the boat zipped across the water quickly. Sonic and Knuckles put their guns back into their pockets as the blue hedgehog put his hands on either side of his head, glaring in anger as he watched the boat take off.

"Fuck..." he groaned.

Knuckles looked around. "Can't we take a boat and follow them?"

"No point," Sonic shrugged. "For one thing, they're too far away now. And for another, Nack likely had that one all planned out so that only he could use it." He then looked over at Knuckles. "So, what'd you find out while fighting those humans?"

"That the implants only got them so far," said the red echidna. "Shadow got one of their arms in a hold and snapped it."

Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "They looked fine to me when they barged past us."

Knuckles shrugged. "I guess maybe the implants patched them up quicker. Maybe that's how they got to here from where we left them so fast..."

"Anything's possible..." Sonic rubbed the back of his neck. "Come on. Let's get back to the entrance."

"Yeah."

The two turned and instead of going through the warehouse, they chose to go around it. It didn't take them long to reach their destination, and the flashing red and blue lights were a dead giveaway of who was around the corner.

"There you guys are," said Avery.

"Commander?" Sonic asked. "What are you doing way out here?"

"Yeah, shouldn't you be back at base?" Knuckles asked. "Or perhaps asleep?"

"I would be, but I did receive some news, and I thought it best to tell you personally," Avery replied.

"Do Tails and Shadow already know?" Sonic asked.

"They do. They didn't like it."

"Something tells me that we won't either," Knuckles muttered.

Avery frowned as he spoke. "Despite your work tonight of not just taking out most of Nack's goons and stopping his operations at the restaurant, but also stopping his plans at the warehouse and rescuing these girls, the fact is that you weren't in your own jurisdiction."

"With all due respect, it was our case regardless of where we were handling it," Sonic said.

The bear nodded, but continued. "You are expected to have a hearing in a few days at the Green Hill Municipal Court regarding your actions tonight."

"We're getting sued?" Knuckles asked.

"Not necessarily. The only real collateral damage that you caused was to the cars of Nack's henchmen, and we can pay that off easily due to how badly conditioned they were anyway. But... this does raise a lot of questions."

"We're sorry," Sonic said. "We were trying to do the right thing."

"I know." Avery placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "But you were doing it in the wrong place."

"What about the Star Light cops?" Knuckles asked. "Will they get into any trouble for helping us out?"

"Actually, since they're in their own city, they won't be tried at court."

Knuckles grunted. "Figures..."

"Are the girls okay?" Sonic asked.

"They'll be all right. We asked them some questions, and they all said that they were captured at least in the last day or so," Avery replied.

"Maybe Nack's getting desperate," replied Sonic. "He was in a rush with those briefcases, not to mention how quickly he's been kidnapping women already."

"And trying to push the Fokus," Knuckles added. "So, what's our next move?"

"Go home and get some rest," Avery smiled. "You all have earned it. You had a good first day, all things considered."

"Yeah... I hope Shade's not too pissed at me," the red echidna replied.

"You can find out when you get back to her," Sonic chuckled. He then separated from his friend to walk over to an ambulance where Amy was sat in the backseat, getting checked up on by a paramedic. "Everything okay?"

Amy nodded. "The doctor here's just checking on any traces left of morphine in my system. Apparently, that's what that weasel used to knock me out."

Sonic smiled. "So, you said to Avery that you weren't kidnapped that long ago?"

The pink hedgehog nodded. "Yeah. It was this morning. I was just on my way to the bus stop so that I could take the bus to work."

"What job you got?"

"I'm a kindergarten teacher at Little Hill Nursery School," Amy smiled. "I love seeing those kids each day."

"Sorry that you weren't there for them today," Sonic replied.

"Eh, it's not your fault," Amy smiled. "Thank you for saving me."

Sonic smiled back. "Do you remember anything else?"

The female hedgehog shook her head. "No. I was just leaving the cafe after getting some coffee there, then a few blocks down the line, I got dragged into an alleyway. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in some bed in an enclosed room and hearing somebody talking about selling me..." She shuddered at the thought. "Then, after that, all I remember is waking up in the warehouse."

"Do you have any friends you can stay with?"

"I live with my twin sister, Rosy," Amy said. She then looked down a bit. "Do I have to worry about that weasel any more?"

"His name's Nack," Sonic said. "And, for now, I don't think so. The last I saw of him, he was escaping on a damn speedboat."

"Aw... you saved the damsel in distress, but didn't stop the villain," Amy teased.

"Hey take it easy. It's my first day," Sonic grinned. "Anyway, our boys will take you back home. Have a safe trip, okay?"

"Thank you. And... thanks a lot..." Amy said.

"Don't mention it. Just doing my job. That I've had for one day..."

The admittance of that made Amy giggle a little bit. Sonic couldn't help but laugh back before seeing one of Green Hill's cops get into the front of the car to start driving, as the engine was already running.

Sonic tapped the back of the car as it went off, seeing Amy stick her hand out of the window and wave goodbye. Sonic couldn't help but wave back, and as soon as the car left for the highway, he looked over to see Shadow talking with Rouge.

"So, you're still the same strapping hedgehog as you ever were," the bat said.

Shadow couldn't stifle his grin, but quickly turned back to serious mode. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine, bad boy," Rouge smiled.

"I've got to ask, how do you keep smiling through all this? You do know that Nack was looking to sell your body, right?"

The white bat nodded. "I know. I just guess that I like putting a brave face on things."

"You know, a brave face is the worst bluff someone can make," Shadow said. "I know how tough you are, but you don't have to act like it all the time. And that's coming from me."

Rouge giggled. "I think this is the most you've ever spoken to me."

"Probably because you're not getting me into trouble with the law any more," Shadow grinned.

"It's obvious that you knew I was trouble from the start," Rouge replied. "And the other five or six times."

"Just promise me you'll stay out of trouble on your way back home, okay?"

"Are you taking me back?"

Shadow shook his head. "I'm heading back with Knuckles and the others in his car."

"Then what's the point of getting into trouble with some boring cop?"

The black and red hedgehog rolled his eyes, showing his badge. "I'm a boring cop now, so..." He smiled. "All right, you take care."

"Aw, don't I get a kiss? On the cheek, at least?" She playfully pouted before winking. "See you later, bad boy."

Shadow rolled his eyes as the car went off, taking Rouge with it. Since it started slow, she took the chance to blow a kiss at Shadow before putting her head back in the car, smiling to herself.

"So..." Sonic said as he approached his fellow hedgehog.

"I know." Shadow sighed as his shoulders sagged. "Trust me, I know."

"You didn't get to ask her much about the case, did you?"

"Not a whole lot. I just brought up Nack wanting to sell her out. I didn't ask where she was when she got kidnapped."

"Probably stealing some douche-bag's wallet," said Sonic. "Maybe one of those wallets belonged to one of the humans with Nack?"

"Whatever the answer, I'm sure that we'll find out soon enough."

It was then that Knuckles and Tails walked over, with the latter of the two speaking first. "How'd it go with Rouge and Amy?"

"Pretty well," Sonic nodded. "They took it pretty okay."

"What'd Fiona and Julie-Su say?" Shadow asked.

"Pretty much the same that they told us when we found them in the warehouse. They bumped into each other by accident, were walking out, then got taken."

"There's got to be more reason to Nack's actions than just wanting to sell the girls as hookers," Knuckles said.

"Let's sleep on it for now," Sonic said. "I'm so tired..."

Knuckles grinned, and turned with the others as Avery walked over to them, speaking. "For what it's worth, I think that you all did a good job tonight." He smiled. "And don't worry about Nack; we'll catch that son of a bitch soon enough..."

"Let's hope so," Sonic said. "Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow, sir."

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry," Avery said. "If it were up to me, we wouldn't have such specific jurisdictions for the cities. Unfortunately, it's not up to me."

"It really doesn't matter that we were doing a good thing?" Tails asked.

"Afraid not..." the bear said. "Anyway, get going. I've kept you for long enough."

The four shook hands with their commander before he went off to a cop car. Knuckles led the way to his car, and Tails called the shotgun seat. After they were all seated, Knuckles started up the car, and his phone rang.

"I'll get it," Tails said. Knuckles handed the two-tailed fox the phone, and he answered it, turning on speaker mode. "Hey, Shade."

"Hi there, Tails," Shade replied.

"So, what are you doing up so late?"

"I... I was worried about Knuckles..."

Tails smiled. "He's fine. We all are."

Shade sighed, relieved. "How'd the first day go?"

"Not too bad," Sonic said from the backseat. "We didn't get injured too much."

"You, maybe," Knuckles said. "I got hit pretty bad, and I got glass stuck in my arm..."

"Shadow got some damage done, too," Tails pointed out.

"Anything else?" Shade asked.

"We managed to stop two possible operations of Nack's," Sonic said. "But he got away from us with a briefcase full of money and another one full of drugs."

"Besides that, it was a pretty good day," Knuckles added with a shrug.

"Well, as long as you're all okay, that's fine." Shade paused. "How much longer will you be?"

"Not too long. We're just now getting to the highway," Shadow said.

"Yeah... our chase led us out to Star Light City," Sonic added. "And, despite doing good work, we're going to be tried for what we did."

Shade sighed. "If I knew a good lawyer, I'd help you all out."

"I don't think we're allowed lawyers. Avery's got us covered," Sonic shrugged.

The orange echidna giggled. "Well, just get back safely, you hear?"

"We will," Knuckles said. "Don't wait up. I love you."

"I love you too," Shade said, hanging up.

"Aw..." Sonic, Shadow, and Tails teased.

"Yeah, yeah," Knuckles grinned. "Don't make those noises. I saw the way Sonic was talking to Amy."

"What?" Sonic smirked. "I got no idea what you're talking about."

"Come on, it's obvious that she likes you," Knuckles said. "Then there's Tails..."

"What, you're picking on me now?" the fox asked.

"We saw you making googly eyes at that Cosmo girl," Sonic said.

"Says the one who's got the hots for the pink lady," Shadow said.

"Hey, I said to knock-"

But the blue hedgehog's sentence was cut off. As they were driving down the highway and laughing about who was crushing on who, they didn't notice the crossing in the highway. They also didn't notice the huge pick-up truck coming at them from the left, its driver apparently not seeing what happened as his vehicle crashed headfirst into Knuckles' car.

* * *

 **So... yeah. I told you all that it'd be a big chapter :P Sorry for the long wait. I just wanted to make it worth it. I hope that you all enjoy it, and I will see you all next time. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	5. What You Don't See

"Don't wait up. I love you."

Shade smiled at her boyfriend's words on her end of the phone. "I love you too."

She then hung the phone up, keeping it switched on to check the time on it. 4:30 AM. Super late for Shade, especially since her job was in three and a half hours, followed by her kickboxing class not long after her job was over.

She went to her bed, sleeping in a black tank top and some blue panties and curling up under the sheets. As she slept, she dreamed happily of cute little echidna babies, hoping to have a family of her own one day with Knuckles.

Her joyful sleep was spoiled just twenty minutes later as her phone buzzed. She didn't recognise the number, but she answered anyway, sleepily rubbing her eyes to clear her vision as she greeted the caller.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hello, Shade? This is Ash of the Green Hill Police Department."

Shade was worried. The voice sounded hesitant. "What's wrong?"

"We... we found Knuckles and the others... they were in a car accident."

The orange echidna sat up instantly. "Is... is everything okay?"

Ash breathed a bit. "We don't know yet. We're just getting ready to take them to the hospital. Meet us there in twenty five minutes."

Shade nodded. "Thank you for telling me this..."

Ash rubbed his eyes and sighed. "I'm just sorry to be the one to tell you."

"No, don't be. It's fine." Shade shuddered a bit. "Could you send a car to pick me up? The only one we have is Knuckles' car."

"Sure thing," Ash said. "We'll see you there."

"Thank you."

They both hung up, and the orange echidna fought back her tears as she rushed out of her bed, searching for her clothes to put back on that she wore through the day, which were dark green skinny jeans and black sneakers. She grabbed her grey jumper on the way out of the house, making her way to the front as she waited.

Sooner than she had expected, a police car showed up. She recognised it as being one of Green Hill's own, so she went over as the driver opened the back door for her, She slid inside, closing the door before the car drove off again.

The trip to the hospital was silent, as Shade wasn't in the mood to talk, and the driver wasn't much of a conversationalist anyway. Soon enough, they reached the Green Hill Hospital parking lot, seeing a couple other cars also park outside.

Once Shade's car had found a parking space, she didn't waste any time. She thanked the driver, got out of the car, shut the door behind her, and walked over to the hospital's automatic doors. She was about to go to the front desk when a voice called her.

"Are you Shade?"

She turned to see a male mongoose with yellow fur. "Yes."

"I'm Ash," the mongoose replied. "We spoke on the phone earlier."

"Where are they?"

"All in the same room." Ash turned. "Follow me. I'll take you to them."

Shade sped up a bit to catch up as Ash started moving, and she was led through the hospital. She soon followed him to a room which had rows of hospital beds with miscellaneous equipment and IV stands attached to them.

They moved further forward, and Ash stopped them both as they reached near the far back of the room. "Well, here they are. They're behind the curtains."

Shade looked around her, seeing four beds that were closed off by curtains. They almost seemed to be in a perfect square, as there were two on the left of Shade, and then the last two to her right.

She went right first, pulling the curtain back and seeing the last person she wanted to see in the hospital bed. "Knuckles..." She knelt down and began weeping at the sight before her; there he lay, unconscious, with several cuts across the left side of his face. He had a bandage wrapped around his head, where she saw some bleeding.

He had more cuts and bruises over his body, but the worst of it was his hands; both had been broken, and were heavily wrapped up in layers of bandages, with a sling keeping them close together.

She bawled out more tears as she buried her head in his neck. "Please... please be okay..."

"He's fine..." Ash said from behind. "His condition is pretty bad, but they'll all be okay." He placed a hand on her shoulders. "Would you like to see the others?"

Shade nodded as she stood up, then chuckling through her tears as Ash handed her a tissue. The pair went to the bed next to Knuckles, opening it up to see Shadow, laying comatose on his bed, much like Knuckles was.

While there were several garish injuries for Shadow, much like with Knuckles, the most notable one was his chest. It had bandages wrapped around it, and they were pressuring down what seemed to be a constant bleeding from the area.

"What happened to Shadow?" Shade asked.

"The accident caused a piece of metal from Knuckles' car to cut his chest open," said Ash. "It wasn't enough to penetrate the bone or reach the heart, but it was a pretty deep cut. It's lucky we got there in time."

"Doesn't Shadow have someone who looks after him?" asked Shade.

"Ah, yes, Maria," said Ash. "We haven't been able to contact her. We've tried, but we can't reach her."

"Did you try calling her from Shadow's phone?"

"Yes. It was one of the first things we tried, but it didn't work."

Shade shrugs. "Maybe she didn't want to fear for the worst when she saw the number?"

Ash shook his head. "I don't know..."

It was then that a door opened from behind them, and Shade and Ash both turned around at the same time to see Maria approaching them, wearing a blue jacket over a light grey t-shirt with a black floral design, with blue jeans and black short heels finishing the look. Following closely behind her was a female rabbit with some mechanical parts whom Shade hadn't met before.

"I'm sorry, Ash," the rabbit said in her Southern accent. "I couldn't stop her."

"It's okay, Bunnie," said Ash.

Maria walked past Shade and Ash, ignoring the two as she reached Shadow. "Is... is he..."

"He's alive," Ash assured the blonde woman. "Why weren't you answering our calls?"

Maria didn't look at Ash. "I was scared... I didn't want to come at first, but then I... I just had to see if he was okay..."

Shade then stops and turns to Bunnie. "Are there any other cops here?"

"Just Antoine and Lupe," the mechanical rabbit replied. "Everyone else went home, but they'll be here to check on them tomorrow."

"Do you want to check on the others?" Ash asked.

Shade nodded, walking over to the other side of the room and opening the nearest curtain. On the bed was Sonic, unconscious, hooked up to an IV, with several lacerations across his face, probably the most Shade had seen so far.

She then looked further down to see both of the hedgehog's legs raised up on slings. They appeared to be badly bruised and broken, and Shade turned to see Bunnie walk over to her.

"It's just early stages, but his legs suffered the worst of the crash," the rabbit said.

"Will he be okay?" Shade asked.

"His face might be better off than the rest of him..." Bunnie answered, hanging her head slightly.

"Let's hope it's not permanent," said Ash. "Only one more to go."

The orange echidna looked worried, and she nodded as she went to the last curtain. She peeled it back to reveal Tails, the last of the four, on the bed. Like the others, he had a breathing mask and an IV tied to him, as well as several cuts and bruises across his face and neck.

"He doesn't look as bad as the others do," Shade noted.

"Actually, the lower half of his spine was busted up pretty badly," Lupe said, walking in with Antoine.

"So, he could be like Sonic?" asked Shade.

"Only if the doctors don't take care of him," replied Antoine. "Which, I assure you, they will."

"So, you've been hurt before and wound up here?" asked Maria, finally turning away from Shadow.

"Actually, it's all down to my body itself," Bunnie said. "How do you think I got these metal parts? I make it a point to change whatever I can as I get older to support me better. The doctors here ain't never let little old me down."

Maria smiled briefly at that, enjoying the humour before she looked over at Shadow. "I just want him to be okay..."

Shade then turned to Ash. "What happened to the people driving the car that hit them?"

"They sadly died on impact," said Lupe. "We suspect that alcohol may have played a part in the accident."

It was then that a group of doctors walked in, with the leader of the group seeing Shade and Maria. "Are you two cops as well?"

"I'm Knuckles' girlfriend," Shade said to him.

"And I live with Shadow, and am kind of his guardian," Maria followed on.

The doctor smiled, but then sighed. "I'm afraid you'll still have to wait outside. We need to get them to surgery."

Another doctor, a female, added on to that. "We would have done it earlier, but there were others that we had to look after when they arrived. We used what equipment we had to stop their injuries from getting any worse."

Shade nods. "I understand." She then looks up at the doctors with pleading eyes. "Just promise that you'll help them, and that they'll be okay."

"We will," the head doctor replied. He then turned to the other doctors. "All right, let's get these beds to the surgery room."

Quickly and efficiently, the doctors moved to unhook any unnecessary things from the bodies of the four fallen officers as they managed to wheel their beds away, taking them out of their current room and heading to the far right of the hospital.

As Shade was about to go with them, Ash's hand held her back, and the mongoose spoke. "You should probably get back home now."

"But..." Shade trailed off, the tears from her eyes blocking her speech.

"Ash is right," Antoine said. "You'll just run yourself ragged if you stay here overnight. Go home and come back tomorrow morning."

"What about my job and my class?"

"We contacted them," said Lupe. "They understand, and everything will be okay. Just please get some rest."

"By the way, your boss is a nice person," Ash added, hoping to cheer Shade up. "She knows how hard you've been working at the store."

"Eh, retail's not the most exciting, but I like the atmosphere, and the people I work with are nice," said Shade.

Ash smiled. "The same care that brought you here will take you back home, and it'll come back tomorrow morning for you."

Shade nodded, shaking hands with the mongoose. "Thank you for all of your help."

"No problem," Ash replied, then turning to Maria. "What are you going to do?"

Maria shook her head. "I don't know... I wasn't able to sleep when Shadow didn't come back home. Now with the accident... I'm not sure what to do."

"Don't you have a job to get to?" asked Shade.

The blonde shook her head again. "No. I've tried, but... it's hard..."

"Regardless, you should probably get home yourself," Lupe suggested. "Like with Shade, there's no reason to keep yourself awake overnight. We'll pick you up in the morning."

"Th-Thank you... I appreciate it..." Maria said, looking down at her feet.

"We'll be here to make sure everything's okay," said Ash with a reassuring smile. "I haven't known Shadow long, but I know that he's one tough dude. The training at Green Hill Academy can attest to that."

Maria nodded once more. "Thank you again..."

She then walked past them all to make her leave. Shade, looking after the blonde, turned to say one last vow of thanks to the officers before finding her own way to the front parking lot of the hospital, seeing a car waiting for her.

Maria had gotten in a different car which was just now leaving, so Shade went over to the one she arrived in, the driver soon hopping into the vehicle and starting it up for the drive back to her house.

Much like with the drive to the hospital, the drive back home was also silent and uneventful, save for her once again thanking the driver as she left the car, who nodded and smiled in reply before driving off.

Shade sighed and entered her house once more, taking off her jumper as she entered. She went straight for her room, chucking her jumper in the laundry basket before it was joined with her jeans and shoes, leaving her once more in her underwear.

She went under her covers once more, her eyes still welling up with some tears as she tried not to cry herself to sleep. She silently prayed to whatever deity would listen that Knuckles and the others would be okay, and then she closed her eyes and got some rest.

Back at the hospital, the four officers that helped Shade and Maria out waited in the front hall of the hospital. Ash scratched the back of his head nervously. "Should we be staying here, too?" he asked his fellow officers. "It just doesn't seem fair to send Shade and Maria home, then we stay here."

"I get what you mean," Bunnie said. "But Avery wanted us to watch over them."

Antoine smirked. "I guess because we're younger, he thinks we can stay up later." He looked at Ash. "You're essentially his right hand man. Can't you give us orders to go and get some shuteye?"

Ash shrugged. "I don't think it works that way. Also, I'm pretty sure that Simian is Avery's second in command. I just make the presentations."

They all shared a brief laugh at that before Lupe spoke up, her voice sounding worried. "How do you think the doctors are doing?"

"I can only hope that they're doing all that they can," Antoine shrugged.

Ash nodded. "It's a good thing that you called Maria here when you did."

"Yeah," Antoine nodded. "Well, it was technically Lupe who called her, but."

"How come you guys didn't get into the room until after Maria?" asked Bunnie.

"We tried, but she moved pretty quickly. She was really worried about Shadow, it seems," Lupe said.

"Yeah..." Ash replied. "I noticed that she didn't even seem tired when she got here. She must have been really worried."

"Well, we'd best get to the main waiting room," said Lupe. "There's no need to wait here any longer than we have to."

The others nodded in agreement with the female wolf, and they all turned to exit out of the room, making their way through out of the recovery room until they found a waiting room in the main hall, finding some seats.

As they waited, the surgeons inside the rooms were busy at work. They had each of the four newbie officers in separate rooms, choosing to work on all four of them at once instead of risking it with one at a time.

They worked on Tails first, as he had suffered the most damage with his spine. They had the fox turned over onto his front, having to move his tails either side of his body to access his spine easier.

They didn't waste any time, carefully cutting open the young fox's back to expose the flesh underneath. After more careful cutting, they eventually exposed his spine, seeing the damage that had been done to it.

Whilst the brace that he was using did enough to keep it under repairs, several segments of the spine were still severely damaged. Regardless, the surgeons went to work as hard as they could, using a newly developed medicinal paste to help repair and heal the spine.

The paste itself was a lime green colour, and inside it were several stem cell compounds that had helped numerous times before. After they put together the right pars of Tails' backbone, they used the paste to glue it together and heal it. For good measure, they put some on Tails' other, less serious wounds to help them heal faster as well.

"Do you think this'll be enough?" asked one surgeon.

"Actually... I might have an idea," said the head surgeon, turning to another surgeon next to him. "Do we have any cybernetic implants?"

The surgeon nodded. "We have quite a few. Got any ideas?"

"Yeah. But get some out for the others, as well."

The surgeon nodded, and in another room, Shadow was being worked on. In contrast to Tails, Shadow wasn't as damaged, but the large cut in his chest was a worry that the surgeons knew wouldn't go away any time soon.

They opened it back up as carefully as they could, seeing just how deep the cut was as one of them spoke. "It's amazing how it didn't get to his heart. This is one of the deepest wounds I've ever seen in my life..."

"Then let's put it back together again," the head surgeon said, using the same paste he used for Tails. "This will keep it healed for a little while before we need to put in the implant."

"How do the implants work again?" asked another surgeon.

The leader smiled. "Well, in a similar manner to the paste," he said, grabbing an implant. He held it up, showing a small, metallic circle with a teal blue tinge glowing around it. "The implants have little nanomachines inside of them, and whatever they connect to they connect to forever. They don't take anything away from the person with the implant, and they keep whatever body part they're connected to in check."

"Don't they also give the user some kind of abilities?"

"They do, but the effects are often completely random. It often depends on how the people themselves act, and the nanomachines will automatically change to give them that ability," replied the head surgeon. "But, in the case of Espio, those were abilities already chosen as they'd been testing them for quite a long time. They had just developed his implant to give somebody the power to become invisible, and Espio was the lucky one who was able to fully connect with his implant."

"So, maybe the implants choose the right people. Or in this case, Mobians..." said another surgeon.

"Perhaps," replied the leader. "Anyway, we've talked long enough. Let's get back to work, shall we?"

The others agreed, and went to sort Knuckles out next. In the accident, his hands had bore the brunt of it, and were severely damaged as the surgeons saw when they dug through the skin on his hands. They were both broken up to the wrist, and the doctors went about fixing them up as best as they could before adding the medical paste to keep them held together.

Lastly, there was Sonic. His legs were the worst for wear in comparison to the rest of his body. But, like his friends, he received some medical paste on the other wounds around his face and neck to help heal them.

The surgeons were quick to work, moving fast to cut through to the bones in Sonic's legs and mending what they could before using the paste to help the process to speed up a little bit. After they were done, the head surgeon moved in.

He started on Tails first, as he was the first to have been operated on. He went about the process carefully, and when he found the right spot, he held the implant there until it connected fully to Tails' spine.

"Easy does it..." the surgeon told himself, grabbing the medical paste and smoothing it over Tails' spine to ease the implant in. "There we are..."

"That could have been bad..." said another surgeon.

"Good thing I'm the head of this little team, then," the leader replied, moving on to Shadow. "His might be the hardest. Sure, his wound was deep, but it never reached his internal organs. I still have to be careful..."

With almost sniper-like precision, he inserted the implant into Shadow's chest, holding it still until it had locked in before adding more medical paste to help soothe the wound, like he did for Tails.

"Let's sort out the red echidna next," the surgeon said, walking over to Knuckles.

Carefully, he placed the implants around Knuckles' wrists. He had to hold them a little bit longer, as having an implant wrap around something was harder than having it stick to a much flatter surface. Nevertheless, they stuck, and more paste was applied.

"That's got to be a pain," said a surgeon. "Having to hold an implant for longer if they're surrounding something rather than just being place upon it."

"Yeah, it is kind of a pain," the head agreed with a nod. "All right, that's three down. One more to go."

He soon found himself working on Sonic, the last of the four that needed operating on. Like with Knuckles, the implants had to wrap themselves around the injured areas of Sonic's legs, so the surgeon held them there for a while. Things seemed to be going well, until the heart monitor connected to Sonic started to go a bit faster.

"We need to sedate him," a surgeon said quickly.

"I can't move from here; the implants are almost locked in!" the head said.

Another surgeon moved around quickly, searching through a nearby metal drawer for the right needle. He soon found it, moving forward and pressing the tip of the needle against Sonic's wrist where the veins were, injecting the sedative into the blue hedgehog's bloodstream.

After a few moments, Sonic had finally calmed down, and the head surgeon panted. "Phew... all right, let's carry on."

He held the implants against Sonic's legs again before they finally locked in, having loosened somewhat from the panic attack of Sonic. After the implants were locked, more paste was added to help ease the pain of it.

The head surgeon panted as he moved back from Sonic. "Man... there were some close calls there..." He looked around. "All right, let's stitch them back up and take them back to the recovery room."

The others nod, quickly stitching the injuries back up before adding more of the paste to the stitches. Not only did they dull the pain, but they also reduced scar tissue that would be left behind.

After this was done, the surgeons carefully moved the beds out of the surgery room, soon getting out of the wing and making their way to the recovery rooms. As they moved, Ash looked up and noticed that the beds were moving.

"Come on," he said to his fellow officers.

They all sat up with him and followed him, stopping short just as they saw the surgeons placing the beds in the recovery room. The four walked up just as the doctors were finished hooking Sonic and the others up to some machines.

"How did it go?" Bunnie asked.

"Well, there was a fair share of close calls, but everything turned out all right," said the head surgeon.

Lupe then stepped in. "I heard that there's this new medical paste that's been helping recently."

The surgeon nodded. "That's true. It helps the blood cells to work faster, dulls scar tissue after stitching a wound back up, and any pain thereafter is almost nonexistent."

Ash chuckled. "Well, thank you for helping them out."

"Anything to assist the force," the surgeon said. "We all should help each other out from time to time."

Bunnie smiled. "I don't know if this'll numb the celebration a little, but the force you just helped have barely been cops for a day."

The surgeon smiled. "They're made of some pretty tough stuff for a bunch of rookies." He then rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you should all get home now. I'm sure you'll all arrive in the morning to check up on them again, anyway."

Ash nodded and shrugged. "Eh, most of our guys already up and left. It's pretty much just us four now." He then shook the surgeon's hand. "Thank you again."

"No problem."

The yellow mongoose smiled once more before turning away, walking out the doors of the recovery room with his friends. They made their way out of the wing and soon exited the building itself as they all hopped into the car that they arrived in.

Lupe was the one driving, and she pulled out of the parking lot before soon reaching the main road. Bunnie took up the passenger seat next to her, and opened the window some to let the cool night air flow.

"So, just where do y'all think Nack could have run off to, anyway?" asked Bunnie.

"No clue," replied Ash. "I mean, according to Sonic, they were speeding off across the water with both drugs and cash. They could be anywhere by now."

Antoine then spoke up. "Isn't Aqua Lake City somewhere in the water?"

Lupe then smiled. "That's a good point. It is its own continent, after all. It's completely separate from the rest of Mobius."

"That would be a start, but we should wait until we've got all of our ducks in a row," Ash replied. "And besides, Aqua Lake is really far away in the water. If Nack wants to traffic something big in a new city, that wouldn't be the best place."

"Unless he got his hands on some shipping containers really quickly," Bunnie suggested.

"I wouldn't put it past him," said Antoine. "Considering how fast he's worked before, anything could happen. I mean, he wasn't in Green Hill long before he started raising trouble."

"It wasn't even all that much," Lupe said. "He was starting off small. If Sonic and the others hadn't gotten in Nack's way, then who knows what could have happened? Like, what if the deal did go through? How much Fokus would Nack be pushing here right now?"

"That's a good point..." said Ash. "And that's not to mention what would have happened if he managed to push girls around with his drugs."

"And that might not be all, either," said Bunnie. "If he got his way, I bet he'd try to sell guns all around Green Hill."

"Well, there's no point worrying about it until tomorrow," said Antoine. "It could be worth bringing up with Avery."

The others all agreed, and the drive the rest of the way back to the Department was silent. They soon parked the car, entered the building, and went up to the third floor to find their rooms.

"Goodnight, everybody," said Ash as he entered his room.

"See you tomorrow," Lupe said, heading into her own room.

"Goodnight," Antoine added, going to his own room, which he shared with Bunnie.

As they got into their room, the coyote and rabbit combo got into their bed, stripping out of their uniform and sticking to their underwear, with a t-shirt and some lounge pants for Antoine, and a nightie with some shorts for Bunnie.

They curled up, and Antoine spoke first. "Do you think we'll be able to catch up to Nack?"

"We will, sugar," Bunnie smiled. "Don't worry about him."

"I'm more worried about Sonic and the others," Antoine admitted. "I worry about what would have happened if we hadn't left when we did..."

"Well, there's no need to worry, cutie," Bunnie winked, kissing her coyote boyfriend on the lips. "Sonic and his friends will be fine, I'm sure. We just need to focus on tomorrow, okay?"

Antoine chuckled. "When you're right, you're right."

"I know I'm right," the rabbit smiled, kissing Antoine on the lips again. "Night, baby."

"Night."

After that, they slept as the other officers went to their own beds and went to sleep almost immediately after hitting their mattresses, feeling tired from both the day's events and from the worry of their friends after the crash.

Elsewhere, Nack and his humans were just getting off the boat that they'd taken. To be on the safe side, they tied it to the pier to keep it close as they walked past the docks, walking to their next destination.

"So, this is the next place that we're going to start, eh?" asked one of the humans.

"Yeah..." Nack replied. "We probably won't find the most business savvy people here, but it's a decent enough start."

"Yeah, but... this is Westopolis. There's crime almost literally everywhere," said the other human.

"And it's also one of the farthest places from the main cities," said Nack as they began walking.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to come here in the first place?"

"It would have been too easy to come here in the first place," the purple weasel said. "Think about how badly those cops would have flushed this place out if they followed us all the way here."

"So, where do we go?" asked one of the humans as they made it to the main city.

"There's an abandoned prison close to the centre," said Nack. "Knowing this place, it shouldn't be too hard to find a car to steal."

"Over there," said one of the humans.

Nack smiled, and walked over to the vehicle in question. One of the humans cocked an elbow back and smashed the window open, reaching in to unlock the car. He then got in and looked around before seeing some keys under the driver's seat.

"Whoever owned this thing is obviously too stupid to look after their own car," he said as he plugged the keys into the ignition.

The others got in, and the second human spoke. "Like Nack said, the people of Westopolis aren't the most intelligent group." He then turned to Nack. "How far is the prison?"

"Like I said, close to the centre of the city," Nack said.

The human driving nodded as he took off, his driving to the centre of the city. Nack gave him the directions to where the prison was, and the human followed them to a tee, soon reaching the abandoned prison in question.

"Well, here's the Westopolis prison," said Nack.

"How are we going to get a good start here?" asked one of the humans. "It looks completely wrecked."

Nack grinned. "The garage has got some old cars in it."

"How do you know all this?" asked the other human.

"I used to work as a janitor here," replied Nack. "In fact, I grew up in the prison. It's where I got my start."

"You were in and out of here as a kid?"

"Eh, on occasion. I'm from Westopolis, after all," the purple weasel said. "But after I saw just how corrupt that life could be, well... I wanted in. Things became so much more fun after I found out how good being bad could be."

"So, what happened? Did you hand in your resignation and just leave?"

"Actually, I killed the cops in the security area and started a prison break," said Nack. "I freed a lot of people who owe me some favours."

"That explains how you're able to sell people out whenever you need to," said one of the humans.

Nack shrugged. "Survival of the fittest. I just do what I need to do. There's no friends in crime; there's only some people that you hate just a little bit less than you hate others."

The others nodded, walking into the prison, the briefcases still with them. They entered through the front door, which was easy since there wasn't any cops to open it for them, and the electrics that would open it or keep it locked were long since gone.

One of the humans wrenched the doors open, and they all walked through. Nack led the humans through the prison, and up onto the second floor where the head office was. He dusted off the old desk and chair that were both still there, smiling as he moved to sit down.

"So, what's next?" one of the humans asked.

"Just give me a cellphone, and I'll sort out what's next."

The human nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulled out a phone before handing it over to Nack. Without missing a moment, Nack began typing in a number. After a few rings, the person on the other end answered the phone, and Nack smiled.

"Who is it?" the other voice, a gruff sounding one, asked.

"Hello there, old friend," Nack said. "How would you like to make a deal?"

* * *

 **Sorry if this one is a little smaller than the others. Hopefully, the surgery scenes didn't disturb you all too much. Anyway, the next chapter should be a little longer. I'll see you all in the next one, so take care and stay tuned.**


	6. Rejuvenated

The clock beeped, and a pair of jade green eyes turned to their left, seeing that it read 7:30 am on the alarm clock. Tiredly, she reached over to turn the clock off before curling back up under her bed, turning to her right again.

As she did, however, she barely saw a pair of green eyes that matched her own looking at her. Doing a double take, Amy opened her eyes and almost jumped out of her skin, scooting back on the bed.

"Dammit, Rosy..." Amy said. "You know you shouldn't scare me like that in the morning!"

Rosy chuckled as she climbed off the bed. "Come on, it's just a harmless morning prank, is all. I wanted to make sure my baby sister is awake."

"Your baby sister by two minutes?" Amy said sleepily.

"The very same!" Rosy then pulled the covers away from Amy, leaving her in her red bra and panties. "Come on, wake up!"

"I'm awake!" Amy said. "I'll be on time for work, anyway."

"What about on time for your prescription?" Rosy replied.

"The pharmacy is on the way there," Amy answered. "It won't take long."

"Well, just as long as you're careful," Rosy said. "You have to remember that I stayed up late, worried sick about my baby sister."

"I remember..." Amy said. "But by the time that I got back, all that you did was smile at me before falling asleep on the couch."

"I was tired..." Rosy pitifully defended.

Amy chuckled and got out of her bed. "You're not the one who was kidnapped by some creep and almost pawned off to some other creep."

"Wait, they tried to what?" Rosy asked.

"They tried to sell me as part of some sex ring," Amy said. "None of them did anything to me. The cops got in their way before they could actually... well, do anything."

"You know, you never mentioned the cops themselves," Rosy replied.

"How about I tell you more about them as you wait outside for me to get dressed?"

The older pink hedgehog pouted briefly before turning around and leaving Amy's bedroom. She closed the door behind her, but kept her back to it as Amy got dressed, looking idly at her nails before speaking.

"So, what were the cops like?"

"They were pretty cool," Amy said. "They were rookies, believe it or not."

"Really?" Rosy asked as she heard her sister rummaging for clothes to wear.

"Yeah." Amy chuckled. "You know, if they hadn't told me that, I would have honestly believed that they were around for a lot longer."

"They were that good, eh?"

"Better than good," Amy said.

Rosy smiled. "Were there any other girls kidnapped?"

"A white bat, a purple echidna with some metal in her hair, and a red fox," Amy replied. "I have no clue who any of them are. Hopefully if I bump into one of them, we could actually become friends."

"Aw... my baby sister is connecting with people," Rosy said, wiping a fake tear from her eye.

"Speaking of connecting, one of the cops was actually pretty cool," Amy said.

"Oh, really? Does he have a name?"

"Sonic," Amy said. "He's a blue hedgehog. I don't know too much about him, but he seems pretty cool."

"I'm sure he does, considering that he saved your life," Rosy replied. "I do wonder how you're going to repay him..."

It was then that Amy opened the door, dressed in a white t-shirt with a pink floral design across the midriff, some skinny blue jeans, and a tan leather jacket in case she needed it. She was just fixing a dark silver digital watch onto her left wrist.

The younger of the two pink hedgehog sisters then spoke. "I already thanked him last night, and not in the way that you're thinking. I just said thanks, we talked, and that was it."

"Oh, you talked? So, he didn't ask you out or anything?" Rosy smiled. "I've heard that there's this Chinese restaurant that makes really good ribs."

"Knock it off," Amy said, shaking her head as she went down the stairs.

Rosy followed her sister. "Hey, we both know it's been a while since you've had a man to look after you."

"I'm not going to take relationship advice from somebody who can't keep a man for longer than a week," Amy retorted.

"That's a little harsh," Rosy said, feigning being hurt. "At least one of those was a week and a half, and you know it. You're only 21, so it's not like you don't have to wait for true love." She then chuckled. "And besides, maybe it's not a relationship you need."

"Oh, not this again..." Amy mumbled under her breath.

"Come on," Rosy said. "A trip to the bar, a hot guy, a crazy night to loosen you up a little. That's all I'm saying."

"And you're saying it knowing what I went through last night," Amy spoke, a bit harsher than she had intended. "I was kidnapped, and drugged, and almost sold off to be somebody's sex slave, and the words that you're saying aren't helping me in the slightest, so could you please let it go?"

Rosy nodded, taking a breath. "All right, I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Amy said.

"One more quick question, though..."

The younger pink hedgehog sighed. "Shoot."

"How cute is this Sonic guy?"

Amy couldn't hide a smirk. "In all honesty, he's kinda cute. Got nice eyes, his fur colour looks pretty cool, and I couldn't tell much from his clothes, but he seemed rather chiselled."

"Does he have any friends?"

"You said one more quick question," Amy said, rolling her eyes.

Rosy shrugged. "Humour me."

"Yeah. A two-tailed fox named Tails, a red echidna named Knuckles, and a black and red hedgehog named Shadow."

"Tails?" asked Rosy. "That's a pretty funny name. I'll bet he's as fluffy as he sounds."

"Yes, because I was aiming for him to sound fluffy," Amy smirked.

Rosy shrugged. "Hey, fluffy is cute. If things don't work with blue boy, maybe you could try his friends out instead."

"And this is where I'm ending this conversation," Amy said, suddenly turning her head when the toaster popped.

Rosy smiled. "I knew you were getting up earlier than normal, so I set you some breakfast up. That reminds me, the coffee should be about ready for you."

The younger hedgehog sister sighed, not able to hide her smile as she walked into the kitchen. "You know, sometimes I have trouble deciding if you're the worst sister ever or the best sister ever."

"It's obvious that I'm the latter of those two examples," Rosy winked as she followed her sister. She went over to the fridge. "Want anything with your toast?"

"Could I have some raspberry jam?" Amy asked.

Rosy grabbed the jar of the substance, opening it and handing it to Amy as the younger hedgehog grabbed a knife from a drawer. She spread the jam on the toast before placing it on a small plate, sitting down at the table.

"Could you sort my coffee out for me?" Amy asked, feeling a bit dumb about forgetting to sort it.

"See?" Rosy asked pointedly as she reached the coffee pot. "Best sister ever."

"You'll fully earn that title if you can remember how I like it," Amy smiled.

Rosy shrugged as she grabbed a thermos to pour the coffee in, speaking out as she made it. "Let's see... just the right amount of milk, one sugar, and some cream to mix it all up."

The younger of the two sisters smiled as her older sister brought the thermos over to her. "You got lucky."

"I've been getting lucky at making your coffee for the last four years," Rosy chuckled. "Now, hurry up and finish your grub, okay? The sooner you get your prescription, the better."

Amy soon finished eating her toast before standing up. "You know, I still don't quite understand how I got the heart condition between us two. Our parents never did anything bad while mum was pregnant with us, and you turned out completely fine."

Rosy shrugged. "I don't really know how to answer it. But as long as you're still alive today, that's all that should matter."

Amy smiled and hugged her sister. "Aw... you really are the best sister ever..." she said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Rosy replied as she hugged back, before letting go. "Go get your drugs before your heart beats so fast that it explodes."

Amy nodded, grabbing her coffee on the way out. She quickly grabbed her shoes, which were a pair of dark red slip-on pumps, and then her brown leather bag before opening the door, stepping outside.

"I'll see you later!" Amy called out.

"Have fun at work!" Rosy replied.

And with that, Amy shut the door, smiling to herself. She fished her purse from her bag as she made it over to the bus stop down the road from her house. On cue, the right bus showed up. While it did have a destination for somewhere else, the pharmacy and school she that worked at were on the way there, so she knew that she didn't have to worry.

Soon, the bus reached the desired destination, and Amy hit the stop button. The bus slowed to a stop at the next bus stop, and Amy thanked the driver as she hopped off. She then began walking to the pharmacy, opening the doors and walking in.

"Hey, Amy," said a friendly female voice from behind the counter.

"Hey there, Vanilla," Amy replied, smiling.

"Here for the usual stuff?"

Amy nodded. "Please."

Vanilla went to the back room, searching around the shelves before finding the box she was looking for. She found the medicines labelled diltiazem, verapamil, and metoprolol. She put them in a small paper bag and walked back out to Amy, handing it to her along with a slip of paper and a pen to sign for the prescription.

"All right... all done," Amy said, smiling as she handed the pen and paper back to Vanilla. "Thank you for the help."

Vanilla smiled. "You've been coming here practically your entire life. It's the least I could do."

Amy nodded, grabbing the bag of medication. "I know, and I appreciate it. Anyway, I'd better get to school. Take care."

"You too!" Vanilla replied.

Amy exited the pharmacy before taking a deep breath. She placed her hand over her chest and noted that her heart rate was starting to speed up. Quickly, Amy found a bench to sit down on before grabbing the boxes out of the medicine bag.

"Two of each, once every morning, afternoon, and just before bed..." Amy said, grabbing the coffee thermos from her bag. She opened the boxes of medicine, taking two of each out of each of the packets before placing them in her hand. She took the diltiazem first, swallowing the pills down dry before doing the same with the other two sets of pills.

"Man... tachycardia can be a bitch sometimes..." she said to herself as she stood up.

She then walked down the road from the pharmacy to a crossing. She pressed the button on the traffic pole, and waited patiently for the cars to stop. The traffic was busy this morning, but they did stop, allowing her to pass and cross over.

When she made it to the other side of the road, she moved up and around the corner, following along a dark green painted fence which had a bush going alongside it. It didn't take long for Amy to reach the main gate, entering through it and going into the school.

"Well, it's time to start the day," she smiled to herself.

 **At Green Hill Hospital...**

Just outside the hospital, a police car was pulling up to the front parking lot, not having to search too hard to find a place to park. After they stopped, the inhabitants of the car looked around to see at least one more police car there.

Avery was the first to get out of his car, followed by Simian, Lupe, and finally, Ash. As Avery reached back into the car to grab a big bag out, the others looked over to the other car to see Nicole, Espio, Antoine, and Bunnie exiting from it, the other car having been driven by Espio.

"So, here are the rookies, eh?" Espio said.

"You should have seen them..." replied Bunnie. "I never knew that anyone could look so damaged before."

"It could have been a lot worse," said Antoine. "The people that hit them could still be living, and possibly walking free."

"They were drunk out of their minds, man," said Ash. "The lab results showed that they didn't have any control over their actions at all."

"They didn't show anything else?" asked Lupe.

"Nope. Just the alcohol," replied Ash, shrugging. "Apparently, that's all that it took."

"Regardless, I think that we should go inside now," said Avery.

"Right," Simian added on. "I just hope that they're all okay after last night."

It was then that another car made its way to the parking lot, causing the group to stop and turn around. They saw another police vehicle stop and park itself, and Shade and Maria walked out of the back of the car.

"Ah, I see the cars that we sent reached you," said Antoine.

"They did," Shade smiled. "Thank you very much for your help."

"Yes... we appreciate it..." Maria said softly.

"No problem," replied Avery. "I am commander Avery. It's nice to meet you both, but we can't delay any longer."

"He's right," said Nicole. "We need to go check on our boys."

"No arguments here," Shade said.

Without any further words, they all went through the doors of the hospital, heading straight for the front desk. One of the people working there guided them to the recovery wing, and soon they had reached their destination, seeing the fallen officers in their beds.

Shade didn't waste any time, making a move for Knuckles. She was worried sick about him, and could barely sleep. She made her way past the others, and looked to see Knuckles in his bed, surprise to see that he... sat up.

"Kn-Knuckles?" Shade asked.

The red echidna turned to his girlfriend. "Oh, hey, babe." He reached a hand to rub his head. "How long was I out?"

"About four and a half hours," a doctor replied.

Espio appeared confused. "Aren't you supposed to be bedridden and seriously injured?"

"We all are supposed to be," said Sonic, also sitting up, causing the group to look over at him. "In all honesty, I feel fine. A little throbbing in my legs here and there, but I'm sure that it'll pass."

Maria walked over to Shadow's bed, seeing him not sat up, but blinking his eyes open. He turned to face Maria and smiled, leaning up on his elbows to be greeted by a brief hug from the blonde woman.

"Well... somebody missed me..." Shadow playfully teased.

"You... you're alive..." Maria replied as she pulled back from the hug. "Last night... you... you were..."

"Close to bleeding out," a doctor said, finishing the girl's sentence for her.

Maria nodded. "Yes, that." She then gestured to his chest.

Shadow looked down to see the scar that ran across it, reaching a hand up to touch it. "My... chest... it feels different..."

"So does my spine..." replied Tails, sitting up and rubbing his back. "What the hell happened last night, anyway?"

"A pretty bad car crash," said Simian.

Shade then looked over Knuckles' face. "Your... your face..."

"I know, I know... still as ruggedly handsome as ever..." the echidna replied with a smirk.

"No, it's not that..."

The head doctor then butted in. "That's a result of our new and improved medicinal paste. It heals cuts much faster, reduces pain, nullifies swelling, gets rid of throbbing... pretty much all the good stuff."

"Is that why my back feels weird?" Tails asked.

"Actually, that's for an entirely different reason altogether," the doctor replied.

"Uh-oh..." Knuckles said, not able to hide his gulp.

"I'm the head surgeon here," the doctor said. "And me and my team worked on all four of you at once. After the car crash, you were all badly damaged, but each of you had something that was more damaged than the rest of you. For Tails, it was his spine. For Knuckles, it was his hands. For Shadow, it was his chest. And for Sonic, it was his legs."

"Did anything bad happen during the surgery?" asked Maria, worried.

"There were some close calls," the surgeon said, "but we managed to keep it all under control. Sonic, who was the last person we operated on, was probably the biggest worry when we were patching him up."

Sonic sighed. "While I appreciate the concern, that still doesn't completely answer Tails' question."

The doctor nodded and sighed. "Well, to help along with the surgery, we had to give you all implants..."

"Implants, huh?" Knuckles said. "Shadow's chest still looks flat to me."

The doctor chuckled at that. "That's not exactly what I meant, but good one."

"Thank you."

"What we meant is that we had to insert cybernetic implants inside you all to speed the recovery process along. With all implants, it does depend on how compatible they are with a person, and it's the reason why your more damaged body parts feel different; Shadow's chest, Tails' spine, Knuckles hands, and Sonic's legs."

"So, I'm part robot?" Knuckles asked.

"In the loosest sense of the phrase, but... I suppose so," the doctor said.

"You know, you're taking this surprisingly well," said Shade to her boyfriend.

"I don't know what it is, but I just feel really good," Knuckles shrugged, looking to his friends. "What about you guys?"

"Yeah, I don't feel too bad myself," Sonic said. "I kind of want to put these new legs to use."

"They're the same legs," Ash said. "Just with implants now."

"Eh, same difference," Sonic smiled.

The surgeon then chuckled. "You know, if you want to walk free, then you can."

"Seriously?" Tails asked. "Not to sound like I'm going against you, but doesn't stuff like this usually require a long while of rehabilitation and physiotherapy to help us move around easier?"

The doctor grinned, walking over to remove the IV tube that was connected to Tails. "Stand up and see for yourself."

Reluctantly, Tails carefully moved his legs over the side of the hospital bed, landing on the ground. With a push, he stood straight up. He held his arms out to keep his balance lest he fall over, but then he started to take a couple of steps forward, surprised at how easily his feet were moving.

Sonic smiled. "I guess that answers our question."

The surgeon nodded in response and walked to the other three, unhooking them from their machines before they all stood up, testing their walking ability as Tails did before all four smiled and joined in a group hug in the centre of the room.

"Looks like we're all all right," said Knuckles as the hug stopped.

Sonic smiled. "It's so hard to believe, man. After not even a full day as cops, we almost get killed by the end of it. And then we wake up, and... everything feels fine."

"Yeah, but... you know it's not all fine, right?" said Shadow.

"I forgot, we got the trial soon," Sonic said.

"It's not for two days," said Simian. "There's no need to worry about it right now."

"So, we can go right back to work?" asked Tails.

"Kind of," said Avery. "You are able to go out in the field, but you'll mostly be surveillance for missions."

"How come?" Knuckles asked.

"The court doesn't trust you to run a field op on your own," Simian shrugged. "Their words, I'm afraid."

"I never thought I'd say this," Sonic said, "but fuck the law, man."

Avery chuckled. "That might be the first time I've ever heard a cop say that and quite possibly mean it at the same time."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Tails.

"For now, we just need to head back to the station," said Avery. "But not before you all get changed..."

It was then that the bear opened the large bag that he was carrying. In it were four individual plastic bags containing clothes for the four. Each one was labelled, and the four went behind their curtains to get dressed back up.

After they were all done, they walked out. Sonic was first to walk out, wearing a black tank top with grey around the sleeves and collar, blue jeans, and black boots. Tails was next, wearing a sleeveless red hoodie over a teal blue t-shirt with a robotic design on it, with cargo shorts and white and grey shoes completing his look. Knuckles was next up, wearing a long sleeved black shirt with a dark blue design of an eagle's wing going across the right side to the front of the shirt, and green camouflage jeans with black shoes finished the look. Lastly was Shadow, who wore a dark red button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just under his elbows, and he was wearing a white vest under that. To finish it was a simple pair of black lounge pants and some white sports shoes.

"I don't know if I'm more relieved to be wearing my clothes," Knuckles stated, "or a bit crept out that the people I work for literally scoured through my house to get my clothes."

"It was actually me that sorted your clothes out," Shade said. "I just put them in the bag for Avery, as he already had everyone else sorted."

"I did the same for Shadow..." Maria said quietly.

The black and red hedgehog smiled. "Thank you, Maria."

"You're welcome..." the blonde woman replied.

"Well, how about we get back to the police department?" asked Knuckles.

"We have a silver and blue taxi waiting outside for you," Espio chuckled.

"Sweet. Those are my favourite kinds of taxis," the red echidna replied.

"Thank you for helping us, doc," Sonic said. "We quite literally wouldn't be here if not for you."

"It was no issue," the doctor replied. "Just look after yourselves. I'd hate to have to deal with you twice in one week."

"Aw, come on, now. We're not that much trouble, are we?" Sonic grinned. "Take care."

"You too," the doctor said, waving them off.

The group of police officers then moved to leave the hospital, exiting through the entrance doors and finding their way to the police cars. Maria and Shade had to get into a separate one from the others since they were being dropped off back home.

The other police cars there had the officers inside them, and they wasted no time in making a move for the police station. Since Sonic and his friends were in the same car, they started speaking to each other on the way there.

"I just wonder what happened to my own car?" Knuckles asked himself.

"Given the amount of apparent damage done to us from it, I'd say it's pretty badly damaged," Tails shrugged.

Sonic then smiled. "As long as you don't bother with Gear Steers for a repair on it, you should be good."

"Do you think that our station has a car impound?" Knuckles asked.

"That I doubt," Sonic asked. "I am curious about their holding cells, though..."

"We'll have to ask Avery all this when we stop at the station," Shadow said.

"You'd think that we would have found that out at the academy," Tails shrugged.

The others murmured in agreement as the rest of the drive carried on. Soon, they had reached the station, and caught up with the car that led them there. They all exited their vehicle, looking to see Avery doing the same.

Tails rushed over. "Sir, may I ask you a quick question?"

"I suppose so," Avery replied. "What do you want to know?"

"I was wondering, does this place have holding cells?"

"It does, but it's not a prison if that's what you're getting at."

Tails smiled. "Good to know. But where do they go when they're not... well, here?"

"Green Hill State Penitentiary," replied Ash. "It's a few blocks to the left of here."

"Don't you usually prepare your presentations with shiny pictures on a computer screen?" Knuckles asked.

"Eh, nothing wrong with throwing my hat into the ring," Ash shrugged.

"Speaking of hats," Knuckles said, "does the station have an impound lot?"

"What the hell does that have to do with hats?" Sonic asked, shaking his head.

Avery smiled and nodded. "It's around the back of the building. I trust that you want your vehicle back?"

The red echidna nodded. "Very much so." He then gulped. "Do I have to pay to get it back from out of the lot?"

"Since you're an officer here, you get a freebie," said Simian. "But just this once."

"Well then, remind me not to get crashed into by drunken idiots at 4:30 am in the morning again."

Antoine shook his head. "The big ape's joking. You do get it back for free for as long as you're an officer."

Knuckles rubbed his hands together. "Demolition derbies, here I come..."

Sonic put a hand on his friends shoulder. "Not so fast there, daredevil. We'd like for you to drive us around when we need you to."

"Why? I ain't your chauffeur," Knuckles said.

"No, but you are our friend," Sonic replied. "And isn't that what friends do?"

Shadow then spoke. "Also, the less damaged it is, the less pissed off at you Shade would be."

Knuckles appeared thoughtful for a moment. "No crashing into stuff it is, as much as it goes against my better judgement."

After some shared laughs, they all entered the station proper. Avery and the others all split up to go into their separate places, with Espio heading for Vector and Charmy's place. As they did this, Cosmo called from the desk.

"Hi, guys," she said as they walked over. "How'd the recovery process go?"

"Remarkably well, considering that the accident happened last night and we're walking fine now," Sonic smiled.

Knuckles looked around. "Where's Mina at?"

The yellow mongoose girl in question raised her head from the desk. "Sorry about that. Dropped my pen."

"Eh, it happens," Sonic said.

"S-So, why'd you call us over?" Tails asked.

Cosmo smiled. "Well, let's just say that your rooms have had some refurbishing done while you were away..."

"Yes!" Knuckles said, pumping his fist. "Hello, coffee machine and toaster combo!"

Sonic shook his head. "Thanks a lot for the help."

"Eh, it wasn't us that sorted your rooms out," Mina shrugged. "Now, go on up and check them out for yourselves."

"Thanks again," Tails said.

"Any time, sweetie," Cosmo replied.

The yellow fox blushed a bit, and almost didn't move before Sonic grabbed his friend's arm and practically pulled him away. They made it over to the elevators and opened one up, taking it to the third floor where their rooms were.

The elevator doors opened up, and the foursome walked out to the left part of the third floor where the corridors were. They made it to the third corridor and walked along it until they'd reached their rooms. They used their ID cards to open their rooms up.

Sonic whistled. "Man... they pushed the boat out on this one," he said to himself. He went to his kitchen. "Got the kettle right there, got a toaster... they even stocked up my fridge, dude!"

"Mine too!" Knuckles said. "Man, do I really need this much cereal? Eh... probably."

"You've got maintain that girlish figure of yours, right?" Sonic laughed.

"How do you think I've kept it up so far?" the red echidna replied with a chuckle of his own.

Tails shook his head as he looked through his own room eventually seeing a picture frame next to his bed. He walked over, recognising the picture. "Aw... I didn't know that they kept this..." he said, taking the picture out of the frame.

"What's up?" Sonic asked.

Tails showed his friend. "It's a photo of us just before we started at Green Hill Academy." He smiled to himself. "My parents must have been holding on to this for until we all graduated."

Knuckles looked at the back of the photo, seeing a message. "It looks like they wrote something for you on the back of the picture."

Tails turned it around and started reading the message out loud. "Dear Tails, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles. Congratulations on graduating Green Hill Academy! We know that the police themselves took a lot of photos of you, but this one is just for you four. Consider it a reminder of how far you've come; not just as policemen, but as people. Love, mum and dad."

"That's pretty sweet," Sonic said sincerely. "How are your parents, anyway?"

Tails smiled. "Last I checked, they're still running the Wrench Turner pretty solidly. Apparently, they're supposed to be getting cybernetic implants in to try and sell those too."

Knuckles smiled. "Well, they do specialise in robotic parts for people. It's weird that they never became doctors because of that."

Tails shrugged. "I guess that they were more interested in mechanical stuff than the medical sciences. Doesn't mean that they haven't helped out a lot of people, though."

Sonic then spoke up. "Who knows? Maybe some of those parts they made might be Bunnie's."

"Shame we didn't all get a copy of the picture," Knuckles threw in. "But I guess if Amadeus and Rosemary want to look after their little boy, I won't be too bothered by it."

Tails smiled and took his picture back into his room, placing it back inside the frame before walking back out. "So, what do we do now?"

"I'm thinking that we head over to Avery and see if he's got anything for us," Sonic said.

"You do know that we're not allowed out in the field on our own, right?" Shadow pointed out.

"Maybe there are some other cops that we can help out," Sonic smiled. "Just saying."

It was then that Bunnie's voice called. "There y'all are!"

"Yo, Bunnie!" Knuckles said. "What's the haps?"

"It's 2216, and you just used the word 'haps'," Sonic said. "I think that alone should already indicate that something's wrong with the world."

Bunnie chuckled briefly, but quickly turned serious. "It's Avery. He needs y'all in the meeting room, like right now!"

"We'll be on our way," said Tails.

They shut and locked their doors as Bunnie waited for them walking to follow the mechanical rabbit. She led them across the floor to the main meeting room, and they all entered through the door to see Avery waiting patiently at the screen at the back of the room.

"Thanks for bringing them here, Bunnie," the bear said.

"Any time," the rabbit replied, taking her leave.

"What's wrong?" asked Sonic. "Bunnie said that it was urgent."

"It is," said Simian. "Your court date has been moved forward to tomorrow."

"What?" Knuckles asked. "How come?"

"Because the judge that was originally supposed to hold your trial on the original date got sick, and they don't have the time to set another one up for then because all of the others will be busy," said Simian. "So, tomorrow it is."

"I still call bullshit on that," Shadow said. "So what if we were in a different city? We were helping to stop Nack."

"Well, it wasn't helpful enough, now, was it?" said Ash.

"You're right," said Sonic. "It's not like we had other cops with us that we didn't want dead, bad guys to chase, briefcases to try and take, and a bunch of girls to rescue that, if we hadn't made in time, would have been sold into the sex trade. And, after all of that, we got in a car crash that could have killed us." The blue hedgehog huffed out a breath. "Yeah, we really weren't fucking helpful at all last night."

"I think that what Ash means is," Lupe said, "there was only so much you could do. There was too much happening last night to be focused on Nack alone."

"It doesn't change the fact that it's a stupid rule," Knuckles said. "Seriously, why are we getting tried for just being in another city? I'm all for the laws of this city, but not when one of the most ridiculous rules that I've ever heard might cost me my job."

"Sadly, there's only so much that we can do to help you when the trial rolls around," said Avery. "I, of course, will be there to represent you as best as I can. Since you're officers of the law, you won't be needing a proper lawyer."

"Well, there's a plus," Tails smiled. "Why pay for a lawyer when your boss offers it for free?"

"So, what do we do until tomorrow?" asked Sonic.

"Just do your job," replied Avery. "Go back to your rooms and await instructions for in case we need you. And remember, you're to back up other officers. If you run any missions on your own out there, then I won't be able to help you at the trial."

"No argument here," said Sonic.

With that, he and his friends stood up to leave. Before they all left, the blue hedgehog stopped and turned to face Ash. "Sorry for my outburst earlier."

"Yeah, my sarcasm about the matter really didn't help things either," Ash replied. "Apology accepted. I'm sorry too."

The blue hedgehog smiled before leaving the meeting room, catching up with his friends as they moved to their hallway. Before they could all reach it, however, they were stopped and turned around by the sound of Espio's voice.

"Hey, guys."

"Espio," Knuckles greeted. "What's the haps?"

"Seriously, again?" Sonic growled under his breath.

"The haps is that I'm about to head out on a mission with Vector," the purple chameleon replied. "Could really use some backup in case push comes to shove."

"Not that we're not enticed by the offer," said Tails, "but don't those orders directly have to come from Avery?"

"Eh, he lets us take whoever we want with us when we spot our own missions," Espio replied. "It's a pretty cool rule, if you ask me. You guys in?"

"Yeah, why not," Sonic smiled. "I could do with the fresh air. I've been pretty much cooped up in a hospital bed all day."

"Then let's get to it," Espio smiled.

The group took the elevators down to the ground floor where Vector waited for them at the double doors. He explained that Charmy was handling the weaponry while he would be out, and they went to one of the G.H.P.D. cars, with Vector driving it.

 **Meanwhile, at Little Hill Nursery School...**

Amy was walking around the little plastic red tables as she saw her kids drawing and colouring. She asked them to draw their favourite animals, and smiled at how talented they all were for a bunch of toddlers.

"Miss Wose!" called a little ferret boy with light purple fur. "Wook what I dwew!"

Amy smiled and looked to see that he drew the face of a cute kitten. Its fur was black, and it had a blue collar around its neck as well as a silver name tag in the shape of a star that read out Beans.

"Is this a picture of your pet cat?" Amy asked.

"It is!" the youngster replied happily. "His name is Beans because the toe-pads on his paws look like beans!"

Amy smiled and scratched his ears. "That's so cute! And such a good drawing!"

"Dank yew, miss Wose!" the ferret replied, giggling and purring as his teacher petted him.

"Are we awowed to dwaw our pets?" asked another kid, a female wolf with green fur.

"Yep," Amy replied. "Your favourite animal doesn't have to be something out in the wild; it could be a pet that you keep at home, if you want."

With that, the kids began speaking about how much they wanted to draw pictures of their own pets. Dogs, cats, goldfish, hamsters, and various other animals were mentioned as the kids clamoured to draw and colour in their animals.

After a few minutes of this, it soon hit the afternoon. "All right, it's playtime!" Amy said.

"Wast one to the sandpit is a wotten egg!" called one of the kids.

Amy got up and opened the backdoor to the playground for them, where they all rushed out to play in either the sandpit, the jungle gym, the swings, the slide, and various other playground apparatus.

The pink hedgehog smiled to herself before checking her watch. Knowing it was afternoon anyway, but wanting to make sure, she headed back inside and went to her purse on her desk, quickly fishing out the pills she had to take.

Thankful that a friend of hers had gotten her a bottle of water, she drank the pills down with the help of the lucid drink, smiling as they went down and breathing a sigh of relief before going back outside to watch over her kids, smiling as they kept playing.

One ran over and tugged at the bottom of her t-shirt. "Miss Wose?" the kid asked, a female mongoose with dark brown fur.

"Yes?" Amy replied.

"Why do you take those sweeties and never share dem with us?"

Amy couldn't help the smile on her face as she knelt down to explain. "Those aren't normal sweeties. They're pills that I have to take because I have a problem with my heart. I've had it since I was born, but I'll be okay."

The mongoose girl smiled. "If I had sweeties, I'd share dem with yew... that way, yew could feel happier when you take the tings for your heart!"

"I'd like that very much," Amy smiled, hugging the little mongoose briefly. "Now, go play with the others."

"Okies!"

The girl turned and rushed off, Amy smiling to herself. She hadn't told many people about what was wrong with her, so to share it with a kid who had caught on was quite new for her, but she didn't mind. She sat down on a bench in the playground, watching over her kids as they kept playing, thinking about how lucky she was to have these kids in her life.

* * *

 **And that's a good place to end it, I feel. I also feel that I did decent work with this chapter. What do you guys think? Also, what did you guys think about me giving Amy the heart condition? How do you think I've written her as a whole in comparison to my Fast Times series? How many more questions will I ask about Amy before I stop? That's how many. Stay tuned for the next one, and take care.**


	7. Got Your Six

Making their way along the roads of Green Hill City was the car that was being driven by Vector with Espio in the shotgun seat. In the back were Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails, all sitting back and wondering what was going to happen next.

"All right, so, where is this mission?" Sonic asked.

"Remember Jade Mountain?" asked Vector.

"Ah, of course. The place with the ribs," Sonic smiled.

"I still haven't tried them yet," Tails added. "Are they that good?"

"They are really good. Even Shadow said so when he tried them."

The black and red hedgehog shrugged. "What do you want me to say? They were good."

"And yet you doubted me in the first place anyway," Knuckles said.

The others laughed, and Sonic spoke again. "Why are we going back there, anyway?"

"Two reasons," Espio said. "For one thing, it's almost lunchtime, and the station's cafeteria lines are all full."

"I can see how that's an issue," Tails smirked.

"The other reason is that we need to shake the place down a little bit," Vector added, finishing his chameleon friend's statement. "Just because Nack and the other mooks are out of the city doesn't mean that there isn't any traces left of them."

"What about the Gear Steers?" asked Shadow.

"We'll get to that later," Vector answered. "Food comes first."

"Have you guys tried the ribs here?" asked Knuckles.

"Of course we have," Espio smiled.

"Then let's stop talking and get there," Tails said. "I wasn't hungry before, but now I'm trying to stop my stomach from sounding like a damn lion during mating season."

Vector smiled and pulled the car around, driving through the front parking lot of the Jade Mountain restaurant. There were a fair few parking spaces left for them to go to, so Vector took the one that was closest to the restaurant before they all got out of the car.

They made their way towards the restaurant, and Vector held the door open for the others to go through. They went to the counter and were pleasantly surprised to see a group of both Mobians and humans working together both behind and in front of the counter.

An older male human walked up to the group. "Are you the Green Hill Police?" he asked them.

"That's us," Vector replied.

The man smiled. "The door upstairs is wide open if you want to look around up there."

"Did you know about Nack?" Sonic asked.

"Not until I came back earlier today," the old man replied. "I was out with, ironically, food poisoning. I came back to find most of my restaurant shot to hell, and all of my employees now dead."

"Wow, Avery really told you everything..." Knuckles mumbled.

The man nodded. "I know that you were the ones to have done it. But I also know that you didn't know if they were working for Nack until it was too late."

"Yeah..." Sonic said, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Sorry for, you know, killing some of your employees and trashing your restaurant..."

"To be fair," Knuckles added, "it was the bad guys who started firing first."

The man chuckled, waving it off. "Enough of that. Would you like to place an order while you're here?"

Tails shrugged. "It is lunchtime, after all."

Vector then spoke up. "We'll take some ribs each, along with some fries."

The man smirked and looked at Knuckles. "No doubt your idea, huh?"

The red echidna shrugged. "Think of it as free promotion, past criminal activity notwithstanding, of course."

Tails then sighed. "It just sucks that some of the nice humans were killed here, too."

"Hey, everyone seems pleasant when they're hiding a gun behind their backs," Vector said. "Go on and find a table. Me and Espio will bring the food over for you when it's ready."

"Will do," Sonic smiled. "Thanks."

With that, the four of them went over to a table by the window. It was one that they'd used as cover during one of their confrontations with Nack's henchmen, and the marks from the bullets were cleaned out quite nicely.

After several more minutes of waiting, Vector and Espio came over with the ribs in question, handing everyone a box each while putting a medium-sized brown bag of chunky fries in the middle of the table, making it easy for them all to reach.

"So, do you think that Nack left anything behind here?" Sonic asked.

Espio spoke. "He seemed like he was in a rush when you guys came over here to chase him down. Maybe he left something behind here without realising it?"

"Not that I'm trying to sound too harsh here," Tails replied, "but that's pretty unlikely. He hadn't been in Green Hill long enough to set much up."

"Yeah, but... three days, and he already had potential buyers for both girls and drugs?" Vector said. "He had to have had something going on, man."

"Even if we do find anything, it wouldn't matter," Sonic said. "The last time we saw him, he sped off across the ocean on a boat with those two briefcases."

"But has he been through the desert on a horse with no name?" Knuckles pondered.

Shadow nodded, ignoring the red echidna's joke. "That's right. With that much money and that much Fokus, he could be anywhere right now, making any deal with anybody."

"But since we don't know where he could be," Tails added, "we might never even know about those deals. And besides, it's not like any of us could stop him even if we knew."

Espio shook his head. "The jurisdiction ban needs to be lifted or something. I'm getting tired of not being able to help more people."

Knuckles then perked up. "That reminds me, weren't we technically backup for the Star Light Police last night?"

Tails shook his head. "I don't think it works like that. They may have led he charge, but we were the one that chased Nack there. It was our mission, but not our city."

Knuckles grunted as he chewed into his ribs. "Stupid loopholes..."

"Stupid ass-holes who made those loopholes," Vector shrugged.

"That's a lot of holes," Knuckles noted. "Certainly a lot more than there needs to be."

"I think there's a phobia of that..." Sonic said.

"At least it's more reasonable than the fear of being watched by a duck," said Tails, chuckling nervously as he looked behind him, making the others laugh.

After more talking and eating, they were all done. Sonic picked up all the trash and dropped it in a bin as the man behind the counter tossed the key to upstairs over to Vector, who caught them quickly.

The group kept walking, finding the door that led upstairs by the bathrooms. Vector used the keys to unlock it, opening the door and going through as the others followed him. They soon reached upstairs, with the green crocodile working on unlocking the door there.

"Just what are we hoping to find up here?" Shadow asked.

"Anything that we think might help," replied Espio as the door opened, allowing them to go through.

Sonic looked around. "I do have to ask, but didn't Nack buy this place out?"

"He did," Vector nodded. "Then you guys chased him off. The only reason that he got it was because the old owner was ill. Luckily, with the money he made from the job, he was able to buy it back."

Espio shrugged. "It's not like he had any other buyers to worry about at the time."

"Well, part of our job description is rushing off competition from buying little known restaurants that make awesome ribs," Knuckles replied. "So, who's going where?"

"Espio and I will check out the main office," Vector said. "Tails, you get the kitchen. Knuckles gets the bathroom, and Sonic and Shadow get the bedroom in the office."

Knuckles snorted an immature laugh, which earned him a punch in the arm from the black and red hedgehog. "Don't laugh too hard, bathroom boy."

Tails shook his head as he went to the kitchen. "Not a lot in here. Just a microwave and some leftover pizza."

"What kind?" Knuckles asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Tails asked.

"Because, depending on the kind of pizza that it is, the leftovers could be good or bad!"

The yellow fox shook his head. "It's a meat feast, with... I think pineapples on it? Who puts pineapple on a pizza?" He threw it away into the kitchen bin.

"Not only is fruit on pizza gross enough," Knuckles agreed, calling from the bathroom. "But mouldy fruit on pizza? That's a big no-no."

"You find anything in there yet?" Tails asked.

"Nope. I'll keep you posted, though."

Sonic and Shadow, meanwhile, looked around the bedroom they were in. "You think the girls were kept in here before they were moved to Star Light?" Sonic asked.

Shadow nodded. "It seems more than likely." He then looked to see a dark stain on a mattress. "What's this?"

Sonic looked and saw it too. "It almost looks like... blood?"

"Maybe he was beating the girls he brought in?" called Vector, overhearing.

"That couldn't be it," Tails replied. "The girls didn't have a scratch on them when we got to them."

Shadow looked around, seeing some more red stains on the floor. "I think I got something..."

"Be careful," Sonic said, looking around the bed for more clues. "It could be anything in there."

Shadow nodded in reply and slowly stalked his way to where the trail led him. It stopped shortly before a closet, which Shadow carefully opened up. To his relief, nothing fell out or jumped to attack him, but it still scared him some. He carefully looked inside, seeing an unconscious body that had been hanged up by his wrists, wearing tape around his mouth as a makeshift gag. The face of the hedgehog appeared to be badly beaten, with dry blood surrounding the lips and under his nose, with a cut above his left eyelid. His clothes, which were a pair of blue skinny jeans, a red sleeveless hoodie, and black trainers matched the look on his face, as they had some holes in them that couldn't have been simple wear and tear.

"I got something!" Shadow called, untying the bonds that held the hedgehog up.

Sonic looked over. "No way..."

Vector and the others came in to see Sonic rushing over to the unconscious Mobian. Hastily, the blue hedgehog removed the tape from his mouth, kneeling and holding him up, shaking him slightly.

"You know him?" asked Vector.

"He's my brother," Sonic replied.

"That just raises a bigger question," replied Tails. "If Manic's here, then where's Sonia?"

Sonic shrugged. "Last I heard, she was still in Green Hill." He shook his brother some more. "Manic, come on! Speak to me!" After a few more shakes, there was still no response. Sonic turned to the others as he picked his brother up. "Move out of my way."

The others nodded, moving aside for Sonic and his brother. The blue hedgehog moved Manic into the main office room, laying him down on his back. He would have tried mouth to mouth in the bedroom, but the office had more space.

Carefully, Sonic pressed his lips over his brother's and pushed out a breath of air before pushing his hands against his brother's chest, pumping hard and calling out the number of pushes he gave in the hopes to bring his brother back.

"Come on, dammit!" Sonic grunted after no success. He was about to press his lips to Manic's again when he heard sputtering, which soon turned into full on coughing.

"He's awake!" Tails said.

Manic let out a few more coughs, before his eyes finally opened. He looked to see his brother and smiled. "Hey there, man. Heard you passed Green Hill Academy..."

Sonic smiled and laughed as he hugged his brother close. "Shut up, you idiot..." he said, fighting back tears.

"How long was I out?" Manic asked as he hugged back.

"That's what we're hoping to find out," Tails answered.

"Do you remember anything?" Vector asked.

Manic pulled away from the hug with his brother as he stood up, wobbling a bit as he reached his feet. Sonic reached to place one of his brother's arms on his shoulders, keeping him aloft as he gave his answer.

"I... I remember going to some restaurant late at night. It seemed like any other night, and I sat down, trying out the really awesome ribs for the first time. That's when some prick in a bowler hat burst in, acting like he owned the place..."

"That's be Nack," Knuckles replied. "That's just his usual attitude towards things."

"Let's just hope it doesn't become too much of a reality soon," Manic replied, shaking his head. "Anyway, his two goons, which were a pair of humans, also came in. They started pointing guns at everybody in an attempt to threaten them. I was moments away from, funnily enough, dialling for the police when one of the humans caught me. They took my phone away and smashed it to pieces before Nack got to me. He told his guys to make an example out of me, after which they beat the living piss out of me in the middle of the restaurant. That's the last thing that I remember."

Sonic nodded. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but that restaurant where they beat the living piss out of you? This is the upstairs office of it."

"Does that mean those ass-holes are still downstairs?" Manic asked.

Tails shook his head. "No. We chased them out late last night. The actual owner got back this morning to buy it back."

The green hedgehog nodded, blinking then instantly regretting it. "My left eyelid really hurts..."

"I'd imagine that all of you hurts right now," Sonic replied. "Let's call you an ambulance."

"Hey, you're back up for this mission, remember?" Vector said, picking his radio from his pocket. "Dispatch, this is Vector. We're going to need an ambulance at Jade Mountain Restaurant."

"Roger. It's on its way."

Sonic shook his head and smiled. "Come on. Let's get you downstairs."

With that, the group all headed back downstairs to the main part of the restaurant, locking the doors behind them. Vector gave the keys back to the owner, who thanked him, and they waited in the car park outside for their ambulance to show up.

As they waited, Manic spoke. "So, how'd your first day at work go, anyway?"

"I... uh... don't know if I should tell you..." Sonic said, somewhat nervous.

"Aw, crash and burn on your first day?" Manic teased.

"We crashed, all right," Knuckles said. "Not so much burning."

"If anything, I'd say that it was more of a mixed result," Tails threw in.

Vector smiled. "Hey, the whole department pretty much knows by now. I'm sure that you can tell your brother."

"Tell me what?" Manic asked. "Bro, what happened? I'm starting to get worried."

Sonic nodded and breathed out a sigh. "After we chased Nack away to who the fuck knows where, we were on our way back to Green Hill City."

"Your way back?"

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "We chased that overgrown ferret to Star Light City. It's a long story, and Sonic probably tells it better anyway."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "Anyway, on our way back, we got hit by another car. It wasn't an organised or malicious attack; it was just two poor saps who were too drunk to get behind a wheel."

"And this happened last night?" Manic asked.

"Yep. After that, we were found by some of our own officers who were on patrol. We got taken to Green Hill Hospital and got fixed up." Sonic smirked. "It's amazing how fast medicine moves these days. At some point during the surgery, we had to get... well..."

"Implants," Knuckles bluntly stated.

Manic reeled back a little bit and smiled. "You guys got implants?"

Tails nodded. "The doctors saw it as the best option, so they gave them to us. I got one in my spine, Shadow's got one over his chest, Knuckles has one for each of his hands, and Sonic has one for each leg."

"They decided that placing the implants over the most damaged parts of our bodies was the best move," Sonic nodded.

Espio then spoke up. "It worked for me." He lifted up his uniform's shirt, showing a mark in the middle of his stomach. "Mugger got to me on one of my days off. I woke up two days later with this little baby."

"Wait, you were injured when you got that?" Tails asked.

Espio nodded. "Yeah. A lot of people thought that I was a willing volunteer, but I initially said no. Then after, you know, getting stabbed in the belly and almost bleeding to death, I found that my options were fairly limited. Plus, I was unconscious, so I couldn't say no anyway."

Manic chuckled, then turned to Vector. "What about you? You got an implant?"

Vector threw his head back to show a scar on his throat. "I had an accident near the end of the first month of working for G.H.P.D.. I damn near lost my ability to speak."

"And now we can't shut him up," Espio chuckled.

"Yeah, keep laughing, lizard boy," Vector replied.

"What was the accident?" Tails asked.

"It sounds kinda a dumb, but... fuck it, we got time. I was at my office and slipped on a can of soda I'd left on the floor, which made me fall forward onto the edge of my desk where the corner of it crushed my throat."

"And the award for least epic reason to get an implant goes to..." Sonic mumbled.

"At least I know what mine does," Vector smiled. "If I could show it off right now, I would."

"Vector can emit a loud scream from his voice box," Espio said. "He's basically packing a gigantic cannon of sound in his throat, but it can get dangerous from time to time if he's not careful."

"Come on, I am the epitome of care," Vector replied.

It was then that a siren sounded, and Tails spoke up. "Speaking of care, here's Manic's ride."

Rightfully so, the ambulance in question appeared from around the corner. It didn't have to worry about finding a parking space since it wouldn't be there long, and it parked close to the group, steering to a stop which showed the back of the ambulance van.

A doctor rushed out, seeing the police officers with Manic. "Did you guys make the call?"

"That we did," Knuckles nodded, pointing to Manic. "Handsome here's the one you need to pick up."

The doctor grinned. "Ah... I remember you from last night. Although you won't remember me. I was one of the surgeons that helped put you back together."

"Yeah... sorry about forgetting you," Sonic said, scratching his head. "When you're on anaesthesia, things tend to get kind of blurry."

"All is forgiven," the doctor nodded, turning to Manic. "Please come with me."

The green hedgehog nodded, turning to face Sonic. "Thanks for the assist, bro."

"No problem," Sonic smiled. "You just work on feeling better, okay? The doctors will take good care of you."

"Hey, if they could fix your ugly mug, I'm sure I'll be fine," Manic grinned.

His blue hedgehog brother smiled back, waving as the doors closed, the doctors inside laying Manic down to sedate him, making the ride to the hospital a little easier. As soon as the van was out of sight, the group sighed.

"Well... lunch was fun," Tails said.

"That reminds me," Knuckles said, "did you like your ribs?"

The yellow fox smiled. "Eh, they weren't half bad, I suppose."

"Hey, when I pop one of my friend's food cherries, I do it with style and finesse," the red echidna smiled, putting an arm around Tails' shoulders. "I expect more than not half bad."

"I'll probably review them when you stop using dumb phrases and sentences," Tails smiled.

"Then we simply can't coexist any further if that's the case," Knuckles smirked.

"All right, give it a rest, you two," Vector said. "Let's haul ass to Gear Steers."

The others nodded, hopping into the car as Vector and Espio took the front portion of the car. They revved it up, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road. As they began turning, Vector picked up the radio.

"Dispatch, this is Vector. We're on our way to Gear Steers to check the place out," he said.

"Roger that, but make it quick," the voice on the other end replied.

"Why? What's up?" Espio asked.

"There's a situation going down at the Emerald Gem Jewellers store," the voice said. "There's a possible robbery in progress, as some suspicious figures were seen walking inside last we heard."

"All right, keep us posted. We'll head to check out Gear Steers first, but if anything urgent happens, let us know."

"Will do."

The radio went off, and after a few more minutes of driving, they had reached their destination. As they pulled up to the front, Vector spoke. "All right, here we are. We check out the mechanics shop first, but just for a quick look. I don't want those suspicious figures to get any bright ideas."

"Should someone wait in the car in case the station calls back with info about the robbery?" Tails asked.

"Good idea," Vector smiled.

Before the yellow fox knew what was happening, Vector, Espio, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles had all exited the car, shutting him inside. Frustrated, Tails remained where he was, but not before flipping a middle finger out the car window.

"Just stay in the car, fluffy," Vector smiled. "We'll be back before you know it."

"If anything happens, honk the horn," Sonic called.

Tails shook his head and sat back in the car, quickly moving to the front seat so that he could reach the radio easier just in case they called back soon. He puffed out a breath through his lips, making them vibrate together before he sat back on the seat in a more relaxed position.

Meanwhile, the other five were approaching the Gear Steers on foot, heading for the side door of it. There were two doors, with one being a garage door for the cars to pass through, and other one allowing civilians to pass through if need be.

As they all walked in, they looked up to see a Mobian wolf with black fur behind a counter, who greeted them with a smile. "Hello, gentlemen. What can I do you for?"

Espio and Vector showed their ID cards, and the purple chameleon spoke. "We're just here to make sure that everything is okay after the debacle not long ago."

"I heard about that," he wolf said.

"Were you here the other day?" Sonic asked.

"No, I had to go out to get a shipment of new parts to come in. I let my partner, Bark, work the register in my absence."

"So, I'm going to assume that you own the place?" asked Espio.

"Yes indeed," the wolf replied.

"Did you know about what Bark was doing beforehand?" asked Espio.

The wolf shook his head. "No. He never really opened himself up all that much to me about things, but it didn't bother me much."

"I'm sure that it bothered you when he got back, huh?" Knuckles suggested.

The wolf nodded. "You have no idea, man. He did a way less than stellar job of running this place, and I was only gone for a few hours."

Shadow spoke up. "Do you remember talking to a female rabbit named Bunnie a few days ago?"

The wolf nodded again. "Yeah, sort of. She asked for repairs, which my guys normally cover. Even I noted that they were acting weird, but I didn't think much of it."

"Well, according to her, her car came back worse, and she noticed how strangely you were acting," Sonic said.

The wolf nodded. "All in all, that was not a great day. As I said, I wasn't here, and I had to grab a shipment of some new parts."

"What about the gas price?" Knuckles asked. "Was it always fifty cents?"

The wolf shook his head. "No, it's usually just about ten. Bark must have tried to up the price to make the business look bad, not to mention offset any civilians from getting inside the building. We don't even get shipments come around the back; that's why I head to the docks every now and then. I grab the parts, and the people delivering them are able to go back home a little bit quicker."

"So it's more for them than it is for you, huh?" Vector said with a smile. "Good strategy."

"Eh, I try my best to keep this business running well. Anything to help the customers a little bit more is all that I want from my guys," the wolf smiled. "Although, now that Bark and Bean are gone, I won't have to worry about them mucking up my business any more, not to mention the others that were helping them."

"So, you never did anything bad on purpose?" Espio asked.

The wolf shook his head. "Not at all. My main goal when starting this place up was just to help people. I have nothing to gain from trying to make people feel bad."

It was then that a car entered, and the wolf looked around to see that most of his staff was already busy. He walked over to the car that had entered, and a male Mobian hedgehog with dark grey spikes left the vehicle.

"Welcome to Gear Steers," the wolf said. "How can I help?"

The hedgehog sighed, exasperated. "My damn tyres have been almost sliding off my whole trip here," he said, gesturing to his tyres held on to the metal wheels by multicoloured tape.

"Eh, we can fix that up," the wolf smiled. "Anything else?"

"Just a little gas refill," the hedgehog said, growing a bit easier around the wolf. "Sorry for my outburst. It's just been a long trip here."

"That's understandable. All right, just give me a second to go to the back room to get you some new tyres and I'll be right back."

"It's just the two on the left side," the hedgehog replied. "The right side's fine."

The wolf nodded, then turning to the cops. "Want to help me out?"

Vector turned to the others and shrugged. "Eh, why not?"

"All right, you just go grab a couple of tyres and a toolbox, and I'll help the guy gas his car," the wolf said. "The back door's open anyway, so you don't need to worry about any keys."

The police officers nodded, turning to go to the back door in question as the wolf helped the hedgehog refill his car with gasoline. It wasn't a lot, only about halfway to refill, so it didn't cost much.

As they were doing this, Tails was kicking back in the front seat of the G.H.P.D. police car, his feet resting on the dashboard as he sighed, rocking his head back and forth and tapping the sides of his chair in an idle song rhythm, which he later followed by whistling tunelessly before the radio on the dashboard sounded off.

"Any Green Hill patrols in the area, please come in! It's urgent!" the voice on the radio said.

Tails picked it up. "Dispatch, this is Tails. What's wrong?"

"It's the Emerald Gem Jewellers! The robbers have started taking hostages and stealing from the shop! You need to get over there right away!"

Tails nodded. "I'm on it. We'll be there in a flash."

"Hurry up! It might get messy soon."

The yellow fox put the radio back on the dashboard and honked the horn several times, holding it for each time that he honked. "Come on, guys!" he called.

In the garage, the officers had just finished helping putting the first wheel on. As they were about to go to the second, they heard the police car's horn honking several times, along with the sound of Tails' voice.

"That's our cue, I'm afraid," Sonic said. "We've got somewhere else to get to."

"Well, thanks for your help," the wolf said. "If I come across anything, I'll let you guys know."

"Thanks for letting us know," Vector nodded. "Take care."

"You too!"

With that, the officers left through the side door of the Gear Steers, heading straight for their car. They saw Tails hopping around to the back seat so that Vector and Espio could reclaim the front portion of the vehicle, and the purple chameleon turned to Tails as his green crocodile friend started the car.

"So, what's happening?" Espio asked.

"The station called up on the radio," Tails explained. "We need to get to Emerald Gem right now."

Vector nodded without needing any further instruction, started the car up and pulling it out of the area in front of the Gear Steers, speedily making their way into the main centre of Green Hill City.

Vector picked up the radio again. "Green Hill, this is car seven. Come in. What's the situation?"

"We have robbers in the jewellery store stealing and taking hostages. There has been gunfire, but no casualties. They'll only start shooting if they see any cops," the radio replied.

"Then we'll just have to be careful," Vector said. "We're on our way."

"Copy that. But you'd better come up with a plan to get around it."

"We'll think of something. Over and out."

"So, do you guys have a plan?" asked Tails. "Because there's a good chance that the robbers could kill us all the moment that we get there."

Espio smirked. "I got something in mind..."

 **Meanwhile, just outside Emerald Gem Jewellers...**

Amy Rose hadn't long ago finished her day teaching at the school. She had taken the bus back to the main centre of the city, which wasn't too far from her and Rosy's house. She was merely passing by the Emerald Gem when she stopped and looked inside.

She noticed several robbers wearing masks to conceal their faces and body armour were seizing the jewellery shop hostage. Some of the bad guys had hostages with them, pointing guns at their heads or using them as human shields as the main leader spoke in a gruff voice.

"All right, if I see any cops outside, I call on my boys to start killing innocents!" he said, holding up the collar of the shop's owner and speaking to him. "But, if you don't hand over the fucking jewels, then we won't have to wait for the cops to show up..."

"Just take whatever you want, man! I don't mean any trouble!"

"Don't start any, and there won't be any!" the leader replied, picking the shop owner up by the scruff of his neck. "We know that the glass is locked by a code, so either you punch it in right now, or I pull the trigger."

The owner, gulping as he felt the muzzle press against his head. He carefully typed in the four number code, and all of the security glass surrounding the jewels opened up. The robbers nearby by it grabbed as much as they could carry, stuffing it into bags to take with them.

Carefully, Amy tried to sneak around the shop, hoping that she wouldn't get noticed by the thieves. She kept her head at a low profile, but as she was about to pass by the front door of it, she stepped on a piece of glass, likely from one of the windows of the shop having been shot out.

"You hear something?" a robber asked.

"It sounds like it's coming from outside," replied another. "I'll go check it out."

Amy tried her best to scoot back and hide around the side of the shop, but barely started moving when she noticed the muzzle of an assault rifle pointed to the floor just about appear out of the door. She froze up, landing on her back with a grunt.

The robber turned to face her, smiling. "Ah, hello there!"

"Please... don't hurt me..." Amy said.

The robber aimed his gun at her. "I won't hurt you, so long as you follow my orders. First, stand up."

Amy nodded and obeyed, and the robber patted her down to make sure that she didn't have any weapons on her person. He then gestured to her leather bag, which she handed to him. He searched through it, satisfied that there weren't any weapons inside, but taking her purse out of it.

"Consider it a down payment," he said as he extracted money from the purse. He slipped it into his back pocket before reaching over to grab her. "Get in front of me, with your back turned."

Amy gulped and turned around, her back to the robber. She felt the muzzle of his rifle pressed against the small of her back and carefully walked towards the door of the Emerald Gem Jewellers, keeping her hands raised.

"We got a new hostage?" asked the leader.

"Caught her trying to sneak by," the robber replied, pushing Amy forward onto her knees. "She's just a part of this as anybody else."

Amy whimpered some as the robbers kept talking before doing a sweep of the area. Much to her surprise, she spotted Rouge on her knees near one of the counters. Rouge was wearing a black tank top, blue skinny jeans, and green slip on shoes.

The robbers briefly paused their talking as they noticed the pink hedgehog trying to make eye contact with the white bat. "Oh, look! She found a friend!" said another robber who wasn't in on the conversation.

"How much longer are we going to lock this place down for, anyway?" asked another robber.

"Well, we got what we came for. There's no need to stick around here for much longer."

Amy was then pulled up onto her feet and forced over to Rouge, the two kneeling next to each other as the robber who picked her up spoke. "You two stay put right here. If either of you move, I'll kill you both."

The two nodded and whimpered a little bit, and the robber turned to rejoin the others. "Are we getting out of here or what?"

The leader nodded. "We've got what we needed. Let's get out of here before the cops show up."

The other thieves agreed, turning to leave through the front door. As soon as they had reached the door, though, Sonic, Tails, Shadow, and Knuckles were just about to walk through it, pausing as they noticed the thieves.

"Whoa, guys. We don't want any trouble," Sonic said.

"You don't want trouble?" said the leader. "Open up your wallets and give us some money, and we'll let you go."

"You know, you're really dumb criminals," Sonic said as he and his friends reached behind their backs to grab their money out. "I mean, CCTV could be anywhere around here. You never know just who might be listening."

"Give it a rest, blue boy," the leader replied, taking the money. "Unless you're a cop or something then you're in no position to make threats with me. And, no offence, but I don't see a uniform on your fuzzy ass."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "You know, you're right. Any officer of the law should always present themselves with the utmost class and dignity that this city deserves. Unfortunately, there are just certain people who don't deserve it."

"Like who?" asked a robber.

"Like us," Sonic said, reaching to pull his gun out. His friends joined him. "Make a move, and it'll be the worst move that you've made all day."

"Oh, what? Are you going to shoot us if we don't listen to your orders?" the leader smiled under his mask. "We got what we came for. And, since you're cops, I'm going to guess that you listened to your radio to get here?"

"So what if we did?" Knuckles asked.

"Well then, you might just remember the rule of what happens to hostages if cops show up."

Without any warning, the leader shot one of the civilians dead in the chest, causing blood to spurt out as the man flopped onto his face on the ground, gasping a few last breaths before dying, his blood pooling on the floor.

"He didn't have to die..." Shadow said.

"And he wouldn't have if you'd just stayed the fuck away," the leader replied.

Sonic grunted, briefly glancing over the inside of the Emerald Gem and seeing that most things were fine before doing a brief double-take as he noticed Amy, whimpering and scared with some tears coming from her eyes, the droplets landing on the floor.

The leading robber grinned and noticed the brief look. "Oh, you're sweet on pinky there, are you?" He quickly walked into the shop and reached to pick Amy up by her head, holding her back to his front as his gun pointed at her head. "How about I give you a much more up close and personal demonstration on what happens when cops show up?"

* * *

 **And I think that'll do it for this chapter, everyone. I hope you're all enjoying it so far. What did you think about the introduction of Manic? That was fun to write in. Don't worry about Amy, though; the action will continue in the next chapter. I hope to see you all then. Take care and stay tuned, folks.**


	8. Diamonds In The Rough

Sonic and his group had reached a stalemate. They kept their guns pointed at the thieves, but they knew that they couldn't do too much lest any of the civilians wind up being hurt, and they also couldn't risk going too far ahead with Vector and Espio's plan.

"Well?" the lead robber said. "Are you going to actually do anything, or are you just going to let me shoot this poor girl?"

Sonic smiled and put his hands up. "You know, you're right. You guys don't need any more casualties."

"I don't think that you quite get it," replied the leader. "If cops show up, people get killed. That's what happened to fatso over there, and it's what'll happen to this hot little piece if you don't turn and leave us alone."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "I completely agree. You were just trying to go about your day, and we got in the way of that. You know, we shouldn't have gotten in the way when you had a clear shot."

With that, Sonic grinned and ducked quickly, allowing Shadow to turn fast and fire a bullet at the leading robber, hitting him in the arm. It didn't kill him, but since the arms of the robbers weren't armoured and taking a chance at a head-shot would have taken too long, Shadow took the best option.

The lead robber backed away, but still kept a loose grip on Amy. Sonic moved quickly and separated the two from each other, quickly pushing Amy down onto the ground to avoid any possible gunfire before taking the lead robber down, mounting him and landing several punches on his face.

Outside, after Shadow had landed his shot, he, Knuckles, and Tails managed to sneak around to the side of the building, narrowly avoiding any bullets headed their way. They used the side of the building for cover as the bad guys hid behind the other side of the building, taking a few potshots.

As they waited, Espio and Vector soon heard the sound of gunfire. Not needing to wait any further, they drove around from the alleyway that they were hiding behind, soon coming around to the front of the Emerald Gem.

Before either of the two could get out of their car, however, another vehicle was making its way down the street. It was a large black car, and the driver of it honked twice on the horn before calling out.

"Come on! We've got to book it!"

"We're on our way!" shouted one of the robbers behind the building.

The group of bad guys quickly turned to head for their car. One of them stayed behind briefly and fired into the building, hoping to hit Sonic. The blue hedgehog ducked, feeling the whizz of the bullet as it passed his left ear, but the distraction was enough for the man underneath him.

Quickly, the leader scooted back on his butt before twisting his hips to free his arms. As they came free, he reached up to grab at Sonic's face, pushing him away before kicking him in the stomach to finally get him off, knocking him on his back.

The leader picked up his gun and aimed it at Sonic briefly before grunting. "I ain't got time for this." He quickly ran for the door. "I'll kill your ass later, blue boy! But this ain't over!"

Sonic got back up to his feet as the getaway car started heading off. The blue hedgehog quickly picked up his gun before turning to face Amy. "Sorry that I can't stick around for a bit longer."

"It's fine," Amy said, smiling. "Now go beat the bad guys and save the day."

Sonic grinned and headed outside, hopping into the car with his friends before Vector began driving off. The police car soon caught up with the robbers' car, staying a fair distance away, but how much of on advantage that was was kind of up for debate as some of the bad guys turned popped out of the windows and began firing.

"It's going to pretty hard to kill these guys!" Sonic said. "Their body armour is tough, and we can't get a good enough shot on their unarmoured parts from back here!"

"Then we'll just need to chase them down!" Vector said. "Keep shooting to keep them busy! But we need to play it safe! We can find out where they're going, and try to put a stop to it!"

"What's worse is that they could be all human!" Shadow said, also firing. "When I shot the leader, he didn't look stunned, so it's safe to say that none of them have any cybernetics among them!"

"Then we'll just have to wing it!" Sonic said, poking his head out to fire again.

The bad guys kept driving, and the leader quickly noticed that they were coming up to a turn. On the right path of the turn were a few lampposts. The leader got an idea and turned to his men.

"Take out the light posts! We've got to try and block them off!"

Nodding, his henchmen turned and focused their aim on the lampposts, shooting through one of them before the car itself crashing into it to give it that one final push. Creaking heavily, the lamppost wobbled before falling straight down, narrowly missing the bad guys' car as it landed.

"Fuck!" Vector yelled, slamming the breaks of the police car in the hopes that they'd stop.

"We might not make it in time!" warned Espio.

Vector kept slamming, but the car showed no signs of slowing down. "Then we've got to jump!"

The others all agreed, and just as the car was coming into contact with the fallen light post, the six of them all jumped out, landing into rolls on the ground as the car crashed into the lamppost. A loud metallic crunch was heard as the two objects made contact, and there was no doubt that the front of the car was severely damaged by now.

The six officers stood back up after landing, easily frustrated at what had just happened, with Vector being the first to speak. "They got away! Dammit!"

"Hey, we'll find them," said Espio.

"We could try to take a civilian vehicle to catch up with them," Tails suggested.

"Nah, those guys are too far away to catch up with now," Knuckles growled, walking over to the car. He then grunted and punched the car hard in the side, unexpectedly causing it to move an inch or two.

"What the heck was that about?" Vector asked. "I get that you're pissed, but that's no reason to bust up my car even further!"

"I didn't even put a dent in it!" Knuckles replied. "Besides, it's fucked up enough anyways. Didn't need my help."

"Actually," Tails said, "you did put a dent in it."

Knuckles was about to reply before he registered the yellow fox's words. Curiously, the red echidna looked to the space where he'd punched the car, seeing that there was a decent enough sized dent in it, and then he looked over his hands.

"You don't think that..." he started.

"Probably just the adrenaline," Sonic said. "Makes people crazy strong sometimes."

"Or it could be the implant," Shadow replied.

"Or it could be the implant," Sonic repeated.

"Well, whatever it is will have to wait," Espio said. "We should get back to the Emerald Gem Jewellers and make sure that everyone's okay."

"Does our car still work?" asked Knuckles.

"Maybe so, but after your punch there, who knows?" Vector smirked.

Espio shook his head and hopped into the driver's seat, pressing on the pedals to make sure, and smiling as he heard the engine rumble without any issues. "Yeah, it looks like we're good to go!"

"Engine still sounds fine," Sonic noted as he went in.

"In all honesty, the crash wasn't that bad," shrugged Tails. "We had lost enough forward momentum by that time to not risk a huge explosion."

"What about the damage on the front?" Espio asked. "Wouldn't that be enough to hurt the engine or loosen something?"

"It is possible that that could have happened," Tails said. "As I mentioned, we'd lost enough forward momentum so as not to warrant a death by a flaming ball of car, but the engine sounds fine as you mentioned. You want me to check anyway?"

"Just a quick once over, at least," Espio said.

The yellow fox nodded, walking around to the front of the car. He didn't have to worry about opening the hood since the crash had loosened it enough, and he looked at the engine, going over it a few times with his eyes.

"It seems fine. A couple of the valves are bent a bit, but they'll work just fine," Tails said, walking back around to sit in the car with the others.

"Good thing that the station pays to fix it themselves," Vector smiled.

"That's typical," Knuckles moaned as the car started moving. "The station doesn't have to pay a dime for their own vehicles, but if I crash my car again I have to pay in full?"

"Hey, you should count yourself lucky that you even got that freebie in the first place," Sonic said. "And besides, who knows? It might be all okay by the time we get back to the station."

"Speaking of which," said Espio, "I'd best call up HQ and see if we can't get an ambulance. Maybe even a coroner for that one innocent who got killed."

Sonic sighed. "It's just a sad truth, man: we can't save everybody."

The others all murmured or nodded in agreement as the car made a U-turn, finally managing to pull itself around before driving back down the road that it came up from. During the drive, Espio sent in the call for help, and by the time he was finished, they'd all reached the Emerald Gem Jewellers.

"Want to check up on your girlfriend?" Tails asked as he left the car.

"Are you asking me or Shadow?" Sonic grinned, also getting out of the car.

The others joined in, and Espio heard sirens in the far distance. "Huh. They're a lot closer than I expected."

The group of officers saw the civilians all helping each other, making sure that everyone else was okay as some began sweeping up the glass from the windows and some of the cases that contained the jewellery in them.

They all walked into the shop, and Sonic walked over to Amy. "Hey there... again."

Amy smiled. "Oh, it's my hero. He came back for me." Her tone then softened. "You know, we've really got to stop meeting like this. People will talk."

Sonic couldn't help his own grin, but his expression soon turned serious. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "I'll be okay. I wasn't seriously injured. I think that the most hurt I got was after I fell from that prick's grip on me."

Sonic looked around, seeing a light cut on her arm from some glass. "You've got a little nick there on your arm."

Amy turned and looked at it, shrugging. "Eh, it's not the worst thing. Besides, it's not bleeding that badly."

The blue hedgehog laughed a bit. "Do you even need my help? Both times that we've met, you've been completely fine."

"I'd probably feel better if my money hadn't gotten taken, not to mention everybody else getting robbed here." Amy then opened up her bag, smiling. "I still have my most important thing, though."

Sonic dared a look inside, and raised an eyebrow at what he saw. "What are the pills for?" he questioned.

"My heart condition," Amy replied. "I was born with it. It wasn't an issue for a while, but then it started getting worse in my teens. I've been on medication for it ever since."

"What about Rosy?" Sonic asked. "Does she have something similar?"

"Oddly, no," Amy said. "Our mother was completely fine during the pregnancy, and did everything right. No drinking, no drugs, no smoking or caffeine... everything went perfectly. Well... except for me..."

"What do you mean?" Sonic wondered. "You look fine to me."

"Oh, do I?" Amy teased, catching on to his double meaning.

Playing her game, Sonic smirked. "Yeah. Your arm looks good too." He then shook it off. "In all seriousness, you don't look too bad about it."

"I'm even luckier with how often I take them," Amy replied. "Two of each at morning, noon, then night before I go to bed."

"How's that lucky?"

"Well, I used to have to take them once every four hours. I also needed more pills at certain points because there were some medications that weren't working so well for me."

Sonic smiled. "I'm just glad that this process of elimination didn't wind up eliminating you."

Amy shrugged. "There were some close calls. A trip to the hospital here and there... no big deal."

"Yeah. The important thing is that you're getting better," Sonic said. "Does Rosy look after you well?"

"She's my sister, not a carer," Amy giggled. "But she tries. I even told her a bit about you."

"Ooh, now I'm intrigued," Sonic smirked. "Was it a good bit or a bad bit?"

"It was a good bit," the pink hedgehog answered. "I told her that you were cute, and that you seemed pretty cool."

"Are you trying to set me up with her?" the blue one replied, grinning widely.

"She's the type that'll more likely try to set people up with each other, and that includes me," Amy replied. "But if you want to give it a shot, then go ahead."

"I'll have to meet her before I can judge whether or not I want to ask her out," Sonic smiled. "But I will say that meeting you, despite the circumstances, has been rather enjoyable. You know, minus the parts about you almost getting sold into the sex trade and almost getting shot."

"And getting my money taken," Amy added. "Are you going to go get those ass-holes at some point?"

"Wow," Sonic chuckled. "Fine and has the mouth of a trucker... how did I get so lucky?"

"Hey, you haven't gotten lucky with me," Amy winked. "If you had, you'd know. Trust me."

Sonic nodded, applauding the pink hedgehog before speaking. "All right, I'll play your game. You and me, this Sunday."

"Don't you have your trial on Sunday?" Amy asked.

"We would, but one of the judges for that one got sick, so we had to have it moved forward to tomorrow."

Amy nodded. "That's fair. The you asking for a date thing, I mean. Not the court date being moved forward."

"You know, you still haven't answered me," Sonic said.

Amy smirked. "What time?"

"5:00 pm good? I might not have a job by then, but I can still take you out somewhere," Sonic smiled.

"Hmm... it's not a bad idea. You got a place in mind?"

"Ever heard of Jade Mountain?"

"Wasn't that the first place that I was taken to after getting knocked out by Nack's men?" Amy chuckled.

"Sure, if you want to look at it in the negative way," Sonic chided.

The pink hedgehog giggled. "Fair enough. You know, I've heard that the ribs there are pretty good."

"Yeah, I can attest to that. They're pretty great," Sonic said. "They use this sweet and sour sauce within the meat that just tastes so damn good."

"Well, I certainly can't wait to find out," Amy replied, smiling.

At the other side of the shop, Shadow was talking with Rouge. The other officers had found civilians to talk to, and thus that left Shadow alone with the white bat, who leaned against an undamaged wall as they spoke.

"So, are you all right?" Shadow asked.

Rouge nodded. "You've saved me twice over the span of a day or so," she said, reaching a hand out to touch his face. "I feel as though I should repay you somehow..."

"You can start by telling me where those bad guys might have went," Shadow said, pulling away from her hand.

"They didn't tell anybody anything," Rouge shrugged. "They showed up, ransacked the place, stole some jewels and cash, then you guys showed up and... well, you know the rest."

"Another question," Shadow smiled.

"Shoot," Rouge replied, cocking an eyebrow at the black and red hedgehog's uncharacteristic grin.

"Do you work here?"

The white bat giggled and nodded. "I do indeed. I'm a price checker for the jewellery here."

"You haven't stolen any of these, have you?" Shadow asked.

Rouge looked offended. "I might have in the old days when we were still partners in crime, but I haven't. Believe it or not, I did get a legitimate job after we split up."

"You almost make it sound like we were in a relationship," Shadow smiled. "We stole food and cash because we were poor and hungry."

"Aw, come on now," Rouge replied, tracing a finger over Shadow's shirt. "You didn't feel at least a little something while we were still adorable little ragamuffins?"

"I mostly felt hungry from lack of food and cold from what little clothes we had," Shadow said, pulling away from the bat's finger again. "But I guess that I might have felt something more."

"Like anger towards that cop that you beat up?"

"Hey, he was a dick," Shadow defended. "And not just to me or Maria. He was just a dick in general."

Rouge grinned. "Calm down now. I was just pushing your buttons."

"That's a nasty habit that you really need to break," Shadow smiled.

Rouge shrugged. "Hey, it beats drugs any day of the week. I've never tried drugs, but I'm just assuming."

The black and red hedgehog smiled as he turned around, hearing the sirens come closer before turning back to Rouge. "There's your ride."

The white bat pouted playfully. "Aw... no limousine? You're getting sloppy, Shadow."

"Did I or did I not save your life again?" Shadow chuckled.

"You're damn right you did," Rouge replied. "But you need to work on your taxi service. All the drivers do for police cars is ask me if I stole anything."

"They do that last night?" Shadow asked.

"They did in the last few cities I worked at," Rouge replied. "Same job. But I kept getting asked over and over, so I moved from place to place before I landed here. Who would have thought that we'd end up working in the same city, eh?"

"Yeah, it's not like you could write this stuff," Shadow grinned. "Come on, I'll walk you to your car."

Rouge nodded, then looked to see Sonic walking Amy to her car also. The white bat grinned as she watched over the two, and kept her attention on them until Shadow cleared his throat, causing her to look at him.

"Your chariot awaits," he said, opening the door for her.

Rouge smiled, then gestured to Sonic and Amy. "Is there anything going on between those two?"

"I'm not completely sure," Shadow shrugged. "Why?"

Rouge pursed her lips. "They just look like they've known each other for their whole lives. They only met the other night, and they're talking to each other like teenagers."

"What can you expect?" Shadow said. "He saved her life."

The white bat shrugged. "It's just a little bit unexpected, I guess."

Shadow nodded. "I guess you're right. Now, go onward in style."

"You know how to spoil a girl," Rouge winked as the car started driving off.

Shadow shook his head and walked over to see Sonic still talking to Amy. Sighing, he walked over to them. "You guys just about done here?" he asked. "The other cars already took off with the civilians."

"I've been meaning to ask, why are you evacuating the people that work at Emerald Gem?" asked Amy.

"Their shop was shot to shit," shrugged Sonic. "Our station is going to try and help to patch it back up."

"Does that include you guys?"

Shadow chuckled. "We don't know yet. It depends on whether or not anything pops up on the robbers from earlier."

Sonic nodded, turning to Amy. "You'd better get back home now."

Amy smiled. "I'll try to not get kidnapped on the way there."

"If you do, I'd get a hat trick of saving barely within a day," Sonic grinned. "Remember, Sunday at 5."

"I'll remember." The pink hedgehog giggled as the car started up, and she quickly poked her hands out the window, holding a pen out. "Give me your arm."

Sonic looked confused, but did it anyway. He held out his right arm, and Amy wrote something on the inside of his wrist. After she was finished, she withdrew her hands back into the police car as the window closed, fluttering a goodbye wave to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog looked at the writing on his wrist and chuckled. "Her phone number..."

"I'm just glad that she didn't use blue ink," Shadow chided. "That would have been difficult to make out."

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, Tails would find a way. The dude could find a drawing pin in a haystack."

"You flatter me too much," the yellow fox replied from inside the car. "Come on, let's get our asses on out of here."

Sonic and Shadow shrugged in agreement and got into the car, joined by the others. As Sonic went about typing the phone number written on his wrist into his phone, he noticed Vector and Espio still talking to some cops, and they walked back to their car smiling.

"What are you two so happy about?" Sonic asked as they got into the car.

"We got a lead on where those ass-holes were headed off to," said Vector.

"Northwest side of the city," added Espio. "Pretty far away from the centre where we are."

"That's kind of a dumb idea, isn't it?" Knuckles pondered. "Why would their hideout be so far away if all they did was come to the centre to steal some jewels?"

"You've got to remember that we aren't exactly dealing with Mobius's most intelligent people," Tails chuckled.

"Well, we can't stay around here too long," Vector said, starting the car. "As good as the lead is, it could go cold at any moment."

"Did we get any specifics on where they might be?" asked Shadow.

"All we got was the northwest part of the city," Espio said.

"Great. The only thing that's worse than a cold lead is a cold lead that's vague," Knuckles grumbled.

"A cold lead is better than no lead," said Sonic. "Did all the civilians make it back okay?"

"All but one..." Vector said, seeing the large black coroner van roll in.

"I still can't believe that that one guy had to die... and all for nothing..." Sonic said as the coroner got a body bag for the murdered civilian.

"It pains me to admit it," Vector said, "but you can't save everybody around here, man. There's only so much that a cop can do in a day."

"I still wish we could have done more," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

"Dude, cheer up," Knuckles said. "At least you got a girl's number. That's got to be a little bit of a win, right?"

"Yeah," Tails added. "Plus, we saved everyone else there."

"I know, I know," Sonic sighed. "Needs of the many and all that. It just sucks that we can't do more sometimes."

"Wow," Vector smirked. "A cop for just about a day, and you're already realising that you can't help everybody."

"I guess that the accident opened my eyes to the world a little bit more," Sonic chuckled. "The best that we can do is help people, no matter how small that help is. Now let's get after those jewel thieves."

"Way ahead of you."

Elsewhere, the jewellery store thieves were just pulling into a wide alleyway. They knew that they had lost the police a while ago, but they still rushed to get out of their car and made a mad dash down the alleyway.

"You don't think that we were still followed, do you?" a robber asked.

"Nah, we lost those cops a while back," said another robber. "We gave them a fender bender. Didn't kill them, sure, but it stopped them from following us."

"What's our next step, boss?" asked the first robber, turning to their leader.

"Our next step is that we try to sell all this jewellery to somebody," the leader replied. "Anybody got Nack's number?"

"There'd be no point," said a robber. "Last I heard, he left Green Hill. I don't know where he went, but we sure as shit won't find him here."

"So, that leaves him out," said the leader. "Eh, it's not like he'd be bothered with us anyway. He's got too much focus on the higher class types of criminals. If we sided with him, we'd be dead inside a week. Fuck, we'd be lucky to make it even that far."

"How's the arm?" asked a robber.

"It'll be fine," the leader said. "Come on, let's get inside."

"I still can't believe that we picked an old library as our hideout," said a robber as they started moving inside.

"Hey, not a lot of people come here any more. And if it weren't for us, then the old dude running the place wouldn't have it at all," said the leader.

"Under other circumstances, that would sound nice. But all we do is bribe the guy. With cash that we still owe him."

"Yeah," added another robber. "I swear, the only reason the owner's still alive is because we haven't put him down just yet."

"We'll only do it if he gives us a reason to," the leader shrugged.

The others all agreed, heading around to the back door of the library with their bags of jewels in hand. They made it through the back entrance and found themselves in the far corner of the shop, turning and making a move for the counter where the owner, an elderly man, was.

"Oh, you all finally got back," the owner said, checking through some books. "How was the robbery?"

"It went off pretty well," said the leader.

"Any cops?"

"Some did get in the way, but we lost them."

The librarian chuckled. "If they show up and I wind up getting shot, I'm coming back for you guys."

The leader shook his head. "Why do you always talk like that?"

"Talk like what? Like what you're doing doesn't matter?"

One of the other robbers rested his hand on his gun. "Keep on talking, you old fuck, and you'll be the one that won't matter."

The librarian smiled. "It's not me that you have to be concerned around. It's the cops possibly on their way to track you dip-shits down and take you out."

"You are aware that you're expendable, right?" the leader said.

The librarian shrugged. "So are you."

The leader shook his head. "We don't have the time for this shit. We've got to make some calls and find out how much these rocks are worth." He turned to the old man. "If the cops come, try to get them out of here."

"Why? I thought that you lost them?" the librarian asked, a grin on his face.

The leader scowled and turned with some of the other bad guys to head to the upstairs portion of the library, whilst a couple more of them stayed on the lower floor, keeping themselves ready and covered for in case the cops showed up.

Just outside and a little while down the road, Vector was talking into his car's radio. "This is Vector here. We're up on the high street, searching for the robbers. You got anything for us?"

"Negative, Vector," said dispatch. "The best we have is that they're on the same street as you. We'll keep you posted."

"Likewise," Espio said. "Over and out."

Sonic looked outside his window as Espio and Vector hung up the radio, and noticed a Mobian rottweiler stood on the side of the road, waving his hands at the cop car. Sonic reached a hand over and pointed.

"That guy might know something," he said.

"Then let's go say hi," replied Vector.

The car pulled up close to the Mobian, and Espio lowered down his window before poking his head outside the car. "Hello?"

"Hey, you guys are cops, right?" asked the rottweiler.

"We are indeed," Espio replied. "Did you see something around here?"

The rottweiler nodded. "I saw a bunch of guys heading up the street, right around the library. They were wearing masks, so I didn't get a good look at them. Plus, I was watching them from my window."

"How'd you know it was them?" asked Sonic.

"I was watching the news and saw a group of guys rob a jewellery store. I kinda put two and two together from there."

Vector smiled. "You did a good job, man. And don't worry, okay? We'll take care of those clowns."

The dog nodded, turning to head back into his house as Vector drove on, soon reaching the end of the street. He thought about parking at the end, then reversed a bit to pull over onto a nearby path.

"All right, the plan is to scout the area out," Espio said as they all got out of the car. "If you see or hear anything weird, tell the others, and we'll reach you as soon as we can."

"Will do," said Sonic. "All right, let's spread out."

The others nodded, scanning up and down the streets they were on and keeping their eyes peeled. Tails was walking down the middle part of the street and looked to see a small alleyway down the side. He raised an eyebrow and stood back to look up at the building.

"Hey, I think I found something!" said Tails.

The others walked over to join him, and Sonic looked up. "Green Hill Library?"

"Why would there be a bunch of jewel thieves cooped up in a place of knowledge?" asked Knuckles.

"We don't know that they're here," said Espio.

Tails walked over to the alleyway, and grinned as he noticed the back of a car parked just around a corner. "We do now."

The others walked around, and Vector smiled. "Good find, fox man."

"Oh, so I've been upgraded from fox boy?" Tails teased.

"Maybe when you get your first kill," replied Espio, smirking.

Sonic shook his head and smiled before turning serious. "So, what's the game plan?"

"If this alleyway goes where I think it goes," said Espio, "then it should lead to the back of the library. But we can't all go back there at once, so we'll need to split up into two groups of three."

"Who goes with who?" asked Shadow.

"Knuckles and Sonic will come with me to handle the back entrance," said Vector. "Shadow and Tails are with Espio at the front."

"No arguments here," said Sonic.

"Let's keep radio silence too. We can't give ourselves away," said Espio. "All right, let's split up."

They all nodded, drawing their guns as they separated. As Espio, Shadow, and Tails made their way to the front entrance, the other three soon approached the car around the back entrance, keeping their heads low.

"Do you think they might have left anything in the car?" Sonic asked.

"If these criminals were smart enough, then probably not," replied Vector. "We should check anyway."

"But how?" Knuckles asked. "We don't have any keys to unlock the car, unless they stuck them in the ignition."

Sonic stood up and looked over to see that the keys were still in there. "Guess that they're not all that smart after all."

"We've got to be careful," said Knuckles. "We can't alert them."

They then heard a voice speaking. "I left the keys in the car, I think. I'll go get them."

Sonic and Knuckles made a mad dash for the side of the alleyway where they wouldn't get seen whilst Vector waited down near the car, keeping his head low. The robber was forced to break the window to the car, reaching in to grab the keys.

"There we go," he said.

As the bad guy started to walk out from the side of the car, Vector appeared from behind, grabbing the robber in a choke-hold and keeping it tight until the robber fell limp in his arms. Carefully, Vector laid him down on the floor.

"That takes care of that," he muttered to himself, grabbing the keys from the robber's hand.

"Nice work," said Sonic.

Vector tossed the blue hedgehog the keys. "Scope out the car. See what you can find."

Sonic nodded, opening one of the car doors and quickly crawling inside, looking around. "Nothing much here," he said, soon checking the back of the car, once again finding nothing. "I can't see a damn thing."

"Let's check out the trunk," Knuckles suggested.

Sonic nodded as he got out of the car, handing Knuckles the keys. "You do it. It was your idea."

The red echidna shrugged, walking around to open up the trunk of the car, and looking around. "There's nothing inside..."

Sonic came around to join him, looking briefly before seeing something on the side. "You see that?"

Knuckles nodded, and reached to touch whatever it was that Sonic pointed out. He turned to his blue hedgehog friend with a shrug before pulling up, grabbing the floor of the trunk and lifting it upwards.

"What the hell?" he said. "Is this Fokus?"

"And about a shit-load of other drugs," Vector added, coming around to check. "Come on, we'd better head inside before someone comes to check on their pal."

The other two nodded, and Knuckles quickly shut the floor of the trunk before shutting the trunk itself, locking it. He then placed the keys back in the car, having thrown them through the broken window to land on the seat.

Vector took to one side of the back entrance of the library as Sonic and Knuckles took the other. Both sides nodded at each other before carefully sneaking in through the back door. They found themselves in a corner of the shop.

"We've got to be careful here," whispered Sonic. "Those dicks could be anywhere."

"Are you whispering because we're in a library or because you don't want us to get caught?" Knuckles joked, also whispering.

"A little bit of both," Sonic shrugged. "But I have the feeling that it's about to get really loud, really soon." He then turned to see an old man ducking next to the counter.

"Let's go over to him," said Vector.

The others nodded, but before they could move much, a few bullets pinged against the wall next to them. Quickly, the three of them dived out of where they were to find some cover, hiding behind one of the bookshelves.

"Nice of you to stop by!" said the leader, looking down over the railing. "So, how'd you find us out?"

"Policeman's instinct," replied Vector. "That, and you really suck at hiding your getaway vehicles, apparently."

"What do you want while you're here?" the leader asked. "Looking for a good book? Because I don't think this place sells bibles. I wonder if they'd be in the fiction or non-fiction section..."

"Stop your stalling and hand over the jewels that you stole."

"Or else what?"

Sonic grinned. "Or else we'll burn up all your hard-earned drugs in a huge fire and make you watch."

"Ah, well, that explains what happened to him," the leader shrugged.

"What are you doing hauling around all that stuff?" Vector asked. "More importantly, why do you have Fokus in the back of your car?"

"If you want a confession, then you'll have to beat it out of me," the leader said, looking down to one of his men who had a clear shot. He then looked past him to see movement from outside the front, and grinned. "Say, did you three come here all your own?"

"We've got some backup handy," replied Vector. "Why?"

"Because when you try to stage a two-pronged attack, you've got to make the bad guys look at one prong whilst the other one sneaks up on them. You guys are really bad at this, you know that?"

"He must have spotted the others," Knuckles whispered.

"Yeah, no shit," Vector said.

"What's the plan?" Sonic asked.

"Covering fire. We need to get behind something and keep the bad guys ducking so that the others can get inside."

"You know, this place is a library," said the leader. "While a do appreciate your whispering, you forget that there's others that can hear you even when you try not to make noise. What was it that one of you said? You were worried it's about to get loud?" He smiled as he saw another one of his men aim a gun at where Vector's group were. "Being right is a bitch sometimes, ain't it?"

Then the gunfire began. Vector called to the others to move, and they quickly hid behind another book shelf to avoid the line of sight of the robbers on the ground floor with them. Carefully, Sonic and Vector provided covering fire, not really hitting anything, but not needing to.

"We've got to get around these guys!" said Sonic, popping out to fire off a few shots. "The others might not be able to get in otherwise!"

Knuckles smiled. "I think I've got an idea!" He stood up and pushed against the bookshelf. "Give me a hand with this!"

The other two nodded, standing up with their friend and pushing hard on the large bookshelf. Sooner than they had thought, it began to teeter over, falling and collapsing on a couple of the robbers.

Since the library itself was small, there weren't many other bookshelves, so they didn't have to worry about too much of a domino effect happening. But they didn't need to, as they got their desired result from just knocking over a couple after one push.

"That should be good!" Vector said as they went to hide near the next bookshelf.

Sonic turned his head to see Espio and the others entering, and he waved his hands towards himself, indicating that it was safe. Quickly, Shadow, Espio, and Tails entered through the front, taking a few shots at whatever robbers were still on the ground level before rejoining the others.

"So, what's the game-plan now?" asked Tails.

"We've got to slowly push forward," said Espio. "Take care of whoever's left on the bottom floor, then work our way up the stairs."

"That could be risky," said Shadow. "There isn't any cover to move up there with. If we try getting up to the top floor, we won't get very far."

Sonic looked around his belt. "Anybody bring any grenades?"

The others looked, and shook their heads as Tails spoke. "Nothing. I do have an idea, though."

"Hey, anything could help at this point," said Vector.

Tails smiled. "Espio, you can turn invisible, right?"

"I showed you that in an elevator on your first day, so... yeah," Espio nodded. "Why?"

"I'm thinking that we distract the bad guys upstairs and you go invisible and go up there," the yellow fox said.

"Not a bad plan," the purple chameleon admitted. "One slight issue, though; I can turn invisible, not intangible. If a bullet hits me, then I'm going to feel it."

Vector smiled and turned to his side. "Good thing we have all these books with us. Given enough time, they could distract anybody, not to mention save on bullets."

"Knowledge is power, after all," Sonic chuckled. "So, we all good with the plan?"

"As long as I don't get shot, then yeah," Espio nodded. "I'm good with it."

"I'm getting kind of antsy up here!" the leader said, smirking. "You cops going to send me somebody to keep me company?"

Vector shook his head. "All right, let's do this."

Espio nodded, turning invisible. Quickly, he moved from behind the cover, rushing up the stairs as quickly as he could, the gunfire masking the sounds of his steps. He stopped briefly as he saw a book fly past him.

"Hey, are you a fan of romance novels?" Knuckles asked as he threw the next book.

"This is a cook book," the leader replied. "But I don't mind. It might give me some good reading whilst I wait this out."

"What makes you so confident about that?" Sonic asked, firing some shots.

"Well, I know that you guys all came here alone," the leader said. "I also know that you didn't call for backup. You didn't bring any grenades of any sort, so you have nothing to throw up here to take me or my men out."

"That reminds me," said Sonic, "how many men are up there with you?"

"Three," the leader replied, turning to his side as he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye.

He looked as he saw one of his men get his gun taken away, and it hovered in midair before switching so that the butt of the gun could the former wielder of the weapon across the face, knocking him unconscious.

"Now two."

Another sign of movement as another robber began moving about strangely. He stood up and his body jerked from left to right in short spasms before finally being thrown upside down, landing on his head. A few moments later, the head of the robber snapped back from a few punches before also falling asleep.

"One guy left," said the leader, turning his attention to aim at the invisible force whilst the last robber ducked down.

"Whoa, hold it, dude!" the robber said.

"It's not you I'm trying to shoot!" the leader said.

"Then, who is it?"

Before the leader could reply, he felt his gun suddenly being jerked away from him. He went to strike back, but hit nothing but dead air. He refocused his attention on his last man, whom was tripped up and picked up, being tossed over the balcony and landing on a fallen bookshelf to break his fall.

"Okay, what the fuck just happened?" the leader asked.

He got his response when Espio became visible again. The leader tried to back away, but Espio caught up with him and smiled. "Sometimes, it's the things you don't see that'll knock you through a loop." The chameleon then reached behind his back to pull out a pair of handcuffs. "You're under arrest."

"You're a cyber cop?" the leader questioned as he was forced to stand up. "That's new."

Espio turned the robber around and placed the cuffs on him, waiting as the electricity lit up around the man's wrists. "All right, you're going to sit tight with your friends while we call for backup."

Before the leader could reply, he found himself being pushed down the stairs, looking to see the rest of his men being bound in handcuffs of their own. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Sonic took note of the leader's arm.

"How is that, by the way?" he asked as Espio left the man alone to go outside and make the backup call.

"Not too painful," the robber shrugged. "I don't think it hit anything important."

Knuckles looked a little closer and see a cut across the robber's arm. "Shadow's bullet must have grazed you."

"Yeah, lucky me, huh?" The robber began chuckling a little bit.

The red echidna grinned before punching the man hard in the stomach, causing him to keel over and land on his knees. "Yeah, lucky you."

"Fuck, that hurt..." the robber gasped. "I felt that through my body armour..."

Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Hey, lift up his shirt," he said to the robber.

"Whoa, whoa, I'm fine with just being arrested," the leader said.

"Just do it."

Shrugging, the thief stayed still as Knuckles lifted up the man's shirt. Surprised, they saw a dent in the body armour. Curious, Knuckles lifted the armour also, seeing the man's bare stomach and growing a little bit more surprised as he saw a huge bruise there.

"Christ, man," Tails said to Knuckles. "How'd you hit him that hard?"

"And you can't blame the adrenaline this time," Vector added.

"So... implant?" Sonic asked.

"Implant," Tails nodded. "Probably. There's got to be a way to test this out, and not just for Knuckles, but for all of us."

"True," said Espio, walking back into the library. "But in the meantime, we've got backup on the way."

"Why do you need extra cops?" the robber asked.

"Well, they did just kick a lot of asses," the librarian said, smiling from behind his desk. "They need more than just their one car if they want to take you all down to the station."

"See?" Knuckles said. "I don't even know this guy, but he gets it!"

Sonic chuckled then turned to the old man. "Sorry about your place, by the way. We'll get it fixed up."

"I hope so," the librarian said. "I've got a new line of audio and visual books coming soon, and I need the place clean."

"You make visual books?" asked Tails.

"Aren't all books things you have to look at?" Knuckles asked.

The librarian chuckled. "It's a new technology, in a way. It's a step up from audio books. Basically, any book you want to read, you can watch as it all happens."

"So, kind of like when they turned it into a movie or TV show, but without cutting out important stuff?" Sonic asked.

"Pretty much," Tails smiled.

"Destruction aside," the librarian said, "I might give you boys a discount."

"We're just doing our job, sir," said Vector. "But thanks."

"Well, if you're ever interested, just let me know," replied the librarian, smiling.

The others nodded, and Espio spoke. "Got a long while to wait before backup gets here."

Tails shrugged. "Maybe just a sample?"

The librarian laughed, putting an arm around the two-tailed fox's shoulders. "Come with me. Luckily, it's in a room that isn't riddled with bullets."

* * *

 **Sorry that it's been a bit longer than usual since I last posted! There's just been a lot of family stuff going on, and I got lazy from time to time... I apologise. Hopefully the next one will come around a lot sooner. I will say that I'd like to get at least ten chapters done before the year ends, but for now, I hope you enjoy what I'm putting out. Take care, stay tuned, and I'll see you all later.**


	9. Choice Words

Back at Westopolis, Nack was talking into a phone, smiling as he sat down at a desk and scribbled some notes on paper. His eyes widened when the person that he was talking to made a huge offer to him.

"And you're certain that's enough?" Nack asked. "All right. We'll do the deal tomorrow morning. Thank you for your time." He then hung up, chuckling.

"Another good deal?" asked one of his men.

"Another good deal indeed," Nack replied. "That's, what, five in a row now?"

"Five calls," said the other man. "Not all of them were that successful."

Nack shrugged. "Well, as long as we have a deal with somebody in this city, that'll do for me."

"Which reminds me, I've been meaning to ask, but... why'd you pick Westopolis?" asked the first man. "There's not an hour that goes by without somebody committing a crime of some sort, so we're not exactly making the biggest bang here."

"No, but we will make the biggest buck," Nack replied. "In fact, that phone call I had? That might be the last one I'll ever need."

"How do you mean?"

The purple weasel stood and smiled. "We now have direct pipelines to crime bosses all around Westopolis for the things we're trying to sell. Guns will go to the east, drugs to the west, and pussy and porn go to the south. We keep the north, which means that we get to keep things running and flowing nice and smooth from where we are."

"So, who are we meeting tomorrow morning?" asked the other man.

"All three bosses," Nack replied. "If we can get them all to agree with us, then we'll have no problem delivering."

"Not that that's not a good idea and all, but where are we going to get our product?"

Nack smiled and bellowed out a laugh. "Are you serious? We're in Westopolis! Prostitution, violence, rape, drugs, gang wars... this is the best place to build everything up. If we ever need any product, I'm pretty sure that we can just go out and ask nicely."

"Well, whatever the case, we're going to need more than enough for the bosses tomorrow."

"No," Nack shook his head. "It won't be an official deal right off the bat. We need to make sure that they've got the money first. They show us theirs before we show them ours."

"What if they don't show at all?"

"Then we cut theirs off. Any connections, any pipelines or deals they have going, we'll take them down. If one of them betrays us, then they and everything that they worked for goes down the fucking drain."

The humans nodded. "I think that seems fair," said one.

"Of course it does," Nack smiled. "Now get on out of here and find me some product. Hit the centre of the city. That's usually where we'll find the junkies and stoners. If you find any Fokus, I don't care who you have to kill, you get it and bring it here."

"Understood," said the humans, leaving.

As the door slammed shut behind them, Nack couldn't help but smile at the notepad that he had written on earlier. "Hmm... it's all going so well so far. If all goes according to plan, I'm going to be more than just the king of Westopolis... I'm going to fucking own all of Mobius, and God damn any cops that try to get in the way of that."

 **Back at Green Hill Library...**

"Oh, shit... I wasn't expecting that," Tails said from the back room of the library.

Outside, the others were waiting, the library owner with them, as Sonic spoke. "You think he's enjoying himself in there?"

"He should be," said the owner. "I gave him one of my favourite books."

"Which book?" asked Knuckles.

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime," the owner smiled. "It's about a 15-year-old maths genius with a condition on the autism spectrum who discovers a dead dog and gets blamed for it by accident. So, to clear his name, he starts investigating it and actually becomes more familiar with the outside world."

"That sounds pretty cool," said Sonic.

The owner nodded. "It's a good read. If I had to guess, we're just now getting to the part where the main character, named Chris, hits a cop for touching him to try and get his attention."

"Huh. I might have to try this whole reading thing," Knuckles said.

Espio smiled and soon heard sirens. "Maybe another time. The clean-up crew is finally here."

"Took them long enough," said Vector.

The librarian nodded. "I'll go get the fox." He went over to the back room, seeing the scene that Tails was watching and smiling. "Having fun?"

"Pause," Tails said, causing the digitised image in front of him to stop completely. "Yes, actually. This is one of my favourite books ever, and actually seeing it all play out is quite an experience."

The librarian chuckled. "If you'd like, you can take it with you. Consider it a freebie for helping me, you know, not get killed by those robbers."

"Thank you," Tails smiled and tucked the book into one his pockets. "You know, you seem pretty tough for... well, no offence, but..."

"I know, I'm old," the owner smiled. "But that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy messing around with people a little bit, right? And besides, I have a job that I love, which technically included having to harbour fugitives against my own will, but still." He then gulped a bit. "That reminds me... am I going to be in trouble over that?"

"Depends on how long you knew about them," said Tails.

"Literally since last night," said the owner. "These punks came in out of nowhere after just getting back from another job, pointed a gun at me and warned me to shut up."

"Then you're not in too much trouble," Tails replied. "Did they try to bribe you?"

The owner waved it off. "I turned their offers down. I make enough money selling my books, so I didn't need their help."

"Well, if you ever run into any trouble again, don't hesitate to call," the fox smiled.

"Yeah. It's a good thing that your number's easy to remember," the old man chuckled. "Anyway, you'd better go. Your transport to take you back is here. The others are waiting for you."

Tails nodded, thanked the librarian again, and turned to head out of the room. He managed to see as his friends and several other cops were slapping handcuffs on the criminals and taking them to their cars outside.

"Destruction aside, this went really well, all things considered," said Vector.

"It's a good thing that our clean-up crew is so good," Espio added with a grin.

"What's next?" asked Sonic.

"What's next is that we have a suspect to talk to," Vector said. "That bear dude. I think that his name was Woof, or something."

"Bark," Sonic said. "Doesn't make the name sound any less ridiculous."

"Eh, at least it's better than being called twins," Knuckles said, playfully putting an arm around Tails' shoulder.

"All right, we might have to take separate cars to get back to the station as most of them are filled with prisoners to take back," Espio said.

"Do you think that these guys might have anything to do with Nack?" asked Knuckles.

"It's unlikely," said Shadow. "Most of Nack's attacks seem planned, like they're supposed to happen. I don't think that these guys are smart enough to plan ahead. They're just a bunch of ass-holes with guns looking for five seconds of fame."

"But they know how to use their guns," said Sonic, before snapping his fingers. "Before I forget, what about their car? You know, the one with the shit-load of drugs in it?"

"Both are being taken in," said Vector. "The car's more of an afterthought at this point, but it's worth checking out. The drugs will obviously make their way to our lovely evidence locker, along with the guns that these guys have."

"The jewels too?" asked Tails.

Espio shook his head. "They took those directly from the people who work Emerald Gem Jewellers. They're being returned right back to them."

"That's good to know," said Shadow.

"Worried about your wife?" Sonic teased.

"More about the people working there," Shadow said. "But, yes, Rouge too." He then turned and walked over to another car and muttered under his breath. "And she's not my wife..."

"All right, enough pissing around," said Vector. "Get in to a car and let's haul these dickless pricks off to jail!"

The others chuckled, and Knuckles went over to join Shadow at the car he was in, which was a bit farther back in the convoy. Sonic and Tails went for the one at the very back, as there was six cars in all, not including the clean-up crew who had two police cars and a van full of equipment.

As they were driving off, Sonic had a thought pop into his head. "Hey, Tails. I just had a thought pop into my head."

"Oh, that's never a good thing," Tails replied.

Sonic shook his head. "What I'm about to say might sound like a crazy idea at first, but hear me out."

"Go ahead."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "I'm thinking that we use some Fokus as leverage when we have our little chat with Bark."

"So, you want to use drugs to threaten a guy who we kidnapped based mostly on the fact that he was trying to buy drugs?"

"But it's not just any drug, dude," Sonic said. "We don't know what this shit does." He looked behind him to one of the criminals in the car. "And I doubt that this ass-hole knows about it either."

The criminal in question raised a middle finger before grunting. "Do you think that you're better than me or something? Just because you have a badge doesn't make the guns that you use any less lethal."

"Oh, we know that our guns are lethal," said Tails, turning with a wide grin. "If I wanted to, I could crank my pistol up to eleven, fire at you, and the resulting electrical shock would fry you from the inside out. Your eyes would melt from your sockets, your internal organs would be liquid, and your skin would be cooked extra crispy, just like how I have my pizza."

The robber didn't reply, instead having his mouth briefly agape before Sonic smiled. "Well, that'll keep him quiet."

Tails laughed and turned back to the road. "So, are you sure that the whole drug thing is a good idea? What if he tries to take it from you?"

"I'm pretty sure that his hands and feet are going to be chained to the table, dude," Sonic shrugged. "I could literally dangle it in front of his face with a fishing hook and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

Tails nodded. "True. And besides, using the Fokus against him would be a lot better than using anything else." He then cocked an eyebrow and turned around. "That reminds me, how did you come across the Fokus anyway?"

The robber looked at him confused. "What the fuck is Fokus? We were told by our boss that it was some type of heroin."

"Yeah, because that makes it so much better," Sonic mumbled. "How many types of heroin do you know that literally glow?"

"Hey, we live in a pretty weird time, man," the criminal shrugged. "You don't know what the next drug could be. Maybe a new type of cocaine that has red colouring and tastes like ashes or some shit like that."

"Who sold it to you?" Tails asked. "Did they have anything to do with Nack?"

"I don't give a shit about Nack. That little bitch weasel ain't worth the name that he hides behind. We don't have any associates except for ourselves."

Sonic chuckled. "That makes this a bit easier."

"What?"

Sonic briefly stopped the car, sticking and elbow behind him. Since the car stopped so suddenly, the robber in the back couldn't control his forward movement, and his nose and upper lip came into contact with the blue hedgehog's elbow.

"Now," he said, continuing driving with the convoy, "where did you get the drugs?"

"I honestly don't know," the robber replied, wiping his bloodied nose. "We found them around the back of some gas station."

"What about the rest of the drugs?" asked Tails.

"We already had that shit, man. Didn't need any help there," the criminal said, almost sounding pleased with himself.

Tails sighed and nodded at Sonic, who grinned and stopped the car again. The criminal lurched forward right into Tails' extended fist, causing a snapping sound as his nose broke from the impact of it.

"Fuck me!" the robber yelled out. "You're strong for a short dude."

"It ain't always about the power," Tails said as Sonic started the car once more. "Sometimes, accuracy is all that you need. Plus, the fact that you've got such a big mouth helps my aim out quite a lot."

The robber kept his mouth shut, and Sonic looked to Tails. "We should go back to the Gear Steers. That's the only gas station I can think of."

"Maybe Bark left something behind," the yellow fox shrugged. "Let's wait until we get back to the station and bring it up with Avery."

Sonic nodded, and the rest of the drive carried on in silence. Vector and Espio led the front of the convoy, and they had soon all made it to Green Hill Police Department, finding spaces to park before taking the robbers from their cars.

As Sonic and Tails extracted their thief from their car, he spoke out. "Do I get any compensation for them breaking my nose?"

"Were you annoying them?" asked Vector.

"He was indeed," said Sonic.

"Then no," Vector replied. "Also, the fact that you stole a bunch of drugs, jewels, guns, and possibly a vehicle. So, there's that."

Sonic smiled, then held the robber back as he tried to wrench himself free. "You do know what happens if you move around too much in these things, right?"

The robber shrugged and jerked forwards again, only for the electrical rings of the handcuffs to nudge against his wrists, administering a small shock that caused the criminal to fall over onto his knees.

"Do I still not get anything for this?" he asked as he was pulled back to his feet.

"That one was on you, dude," Tails shrugged.

They continued the walk to the station, passing through the front doors. The group handed off the criminals to some nearby officers who were waiting to take them down to the holding cells, and Vector and Espio headed for the front desk thereafter.

"Hey, boys!" said Cosmo. "How can I help?"

"We were wondering where Avery is," said Espio.

"In the meeting room, where he almost always is," said Mina, chuckling before turning serious. "But it might not be a good time to talk to him."

"Is he mad at us for the other night?" asked Knuckles.

"He's having a phone call with Dingo, the commander of Star Light Police Department," said Cosmo. "They're old friends, but I don't think that Dingo will play along on our side when it comes to the court case..."

"So, what you're saying is that we're screwed?" asked Sonic.

"That's one way of putting it," Cosmo smiled. "Although, you did do a damn good job today."

"Despite a casualty, it went pretty well," Tails replied. "Oh, and I got one of those new visual book things!"

The plant girl looked closer at the title of the book. "Ooh... I've read that one! It's such a good book. I've never seen the visual version, though. Only read the paper one."

"Maybe you could watch it with him?" Knuckles suggested. "He just got started on it earlier. The library owner gave it to him for free after we saved his life from the jewel thieves."

Cosmo blushed lightly. "Whenever I have the time, I will."

Tails sighed. "I know. You're pretty swamped at the front desk. If we could stick around to help, we would."

"I know," Cosmo nodded. "But you're needed out there, helping people."

Tails nodded and blushed, before Vector cleared his throat. "Ahem... well, uh, let's get to Avery and see what he needs us for. Thanks for the heads up," he said to the girls.

"Any time," Mina replied. As soon as the boys walked away, she turned to her plant girl friend. "Okay, so..."

"So... what?" asked Cosmo.

"You like the fluffy one, don't you?" Mina teased.

"They're all fluffy," Cosmo meekly defended.

"You know which one I'm on about," said the yellow mongoose. "Somewhat shorter than the others, blue eyes, yellow fur, two tails, and a good vocabulary?"

Cosmo shook her head, trying to ignore Mina. "Yeah, he's cute, I guess. If you're into the adorable, geeky types."

"Aha! You just called him adorable!" the mongoose said.

"Have you seen him?"

Mina giggled. "There is that. So, if you like him so much, then why not ask him out?"

"I kinda did," Cosmo shrugged. "I wasn't lying about the book thing. I just really am stormed here with work, as are you."

The mongoose smiled. "Well, I guess you'll be ready when you're ready."

Cosmo playfully shook her head in reply, and continued about her work. Meanwhile, Sonic and the others were just now approaching the meeting room, where there was Avery and Simian there, with Ash handling the presentation as always.

"So, what's happening?" Sonic asked as he and the others sat down, Vector and Espio included.

"First of all, congratulations on your work today," said Avery. "I can see that Vector and Espio led you very well in the mission."

"Eh, they did okay," Knuckles chided.

The bear commander shook his head at the joke before continuing. "Sadly, I don't have good news for you. I just got off of the phone with Dingo."

"The girls at the front desk told us that he's a friend of yours," Shadow pointed out.

Avery nodded. "That's true, but he's not going to support us, with him leading Star Light and me leading Green Hill. We're both going to try and stay objective about the whole thing, and not show any favouritism towards each other."

"If it's any consolation," Ash added, "he does think that the whole running missions in other districts rule is stupid. Because it is stupid."

Simian grunted. "It's not even like the court can hold much evidence against you, minus the bad guys escaping with the drugs and money."

"Gee, thanks for the reminder," Tails complained.

"Hey, at least we managed to get the girls back from them," Knuckles said, trying to cheer his friend up. "One out of three ain't bad."

"Sadly," Avery said with a sigh, "none of that is going to help us tomorrow."

"And besides," Simian said, "it's not based on evidence, per say. It's more going to be about the fact that you broke the rule in the first place."

Sonic buried his face in his hands. "Do we have any hope here?"

Vector nodded. "Actually, yes. It's a slim chance, but since you are rookies, you might be able to avoid some trouble."

Espio then spoke. "I don't think that bringing up your accident is going to help our case all that much, to be honest."

"What about the bad guys we took out on the highway?" asked Tails.

"Wouldn't count for much," Simian shrugged. "But since that was closer to Star Light than Green Hill, it's still sort of in their jurisdiction."

"Well, doesn't that just add more cinnamon to the bullshit cake..." Sonic grumbled. He then looked up. "So, what do we do now?"

"I'm so glad you asked," said Avery. "Ash, if you would."

On cue, the male mongoose pressed a button on the remote, showing a camera screen of Bark in his holding cell. Soon, a pair of cops were seen going over to open his cell before putting cuffs on him and pulling him away.

"Where are they taking him?" asked Shadow as he saw Bark get dragged further up past the holding cells.

"To the interrogation room," said Simian.

"And here I was thinking that you didn't have any good news," Knuckles said. "I can't wait to teach this fucker a lesson..."

"Actually, we're going to have Shadow give the interrogation," said Avery.

"What?!" Knuckles asked.

"I beg your pardon?" Shadow said, raising an eyebrow.

"Sir, you're going to send in the guy that hardly talks to get information out of a guy who probably won't talk anyway!" Knuckles said, carrying on as if he'd ignored Shadow.

"That may seem the case," Avery said as the red echidna calmed down, "but he's the most level-headed of the four of you. Also, he won't be going in alone. Vector will provide backup, should it be needed."

"Well, that segues nicely into what I was about to say next," said Vector with a grin. "Those jewel thieves had a bunch of drugs hidden in the trunk of their car. Said that they got the majority of them themselves, but they had stolen some Fokus from Gear Steers."

"Dammit," said Simian. "We never did send a clean-up crew to check things over there."

"I don't think that it was the owner who got them," Tails said. "He seems too nice."

"Well, it's like they said during the deal, Bark pointed out that he was sick of the old version," Sonic shrugged. "Maybe he had some left over that he didn't use because he was waiting on the new and improved version."

"So, do the thieves know what it's capable of?" asked Ash.

"Nah," Sonic chuckled. "Silly bastards think that it's heroin."

"Wow," the mongoose replied, chuckling. "We really are dealing with Mobius' dumbest criminals."

"Me and Sonic kind of came up with a plan of our own to help with the interrogation," said Tails.

"Oh?" Avery asked. "Go on. I'm listening."

"We were thinking about maybe using some Fokus as leverage," Sonic suggested. "It might make Bark talk a bit easier."

"Hmm... I'm not sure," Avery said. "That does seem like something of a risk."

Simian spoke up. "We've tried getting him to talk from time to time on our own, and nothing's worked. Maybe Sonic's idea could hold some water."

Ash nodded before adding on. "He's right, sir. We'll make sure that Bark's tied down good and proper to his chair so that he can't try to take the drugs. And besides, we're pretty low on options.

Avery pondered on it for a few moments before smiling. "All right, then. Espio, I want you to take Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic with you to the Gear Steers. If there was leftover Fokus, maybe Bark forgot to get rid of some other stuff."

"So, we're the clean-up crew?" Knuckles asked.

"On a technicality, yes," Espio said. "Now, grab your brooms and mops and let's go sort that garage out."

"If you actually have those somewhere in your car, I'll use you as a mop instead," the red echidna threatened, standing up with his friends.

"Is it worth sending all four of them?" asked Simian as they left the door.

"You never know what they might find," Avery replied. "If anything, they've consistently proven that they work well as a team, provided that the majority of them are still together."

"So, will I be playing the good cop or the bad cop?" Shadow asked as he also stood, Vector joining him.

"You'll be playing yourself, really," said Vector. "Albeit with a drug in your hands that you're going to use against him."

Avery smiled. "Remember, you've got to get a different ID from the girls at the front desk to access the evidence room."

Shadow paused and raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Only the most high-up people at the station are allowed in there," Vector pointed out. "Which limits it to anybody in this room that isn't us two."

"I don't get access either," Ash pointed out. "I just chalk up presentations, edit them together, make them look good... you know, the real hard work."

"And we would surely all be lost without you," Vector said with a nod, turning to Shadow. "Come on."

The black and red hedgehog nodded, and they both took the stairs down to the ground floor. They soon made it to the front desk, which saw Cosmo and Mina both typing into the computer next to them.

"Oh, what do you two want now?" Cosmo playfully complained.

"I need an ID card for the evidence locker," said Vector.

"Ah, finally going to take that rifle and do some skeet shooting?" Mina teased.

"Eh, been thinking about it, but no," the crocodile said. "It's for Shadow, not me."

"Any reason why?" Mina asked.

Shadow breathed out before speaking. "I'm going to have a talk with Bark, and I need some leverage against him. The kind of leverage that we don't know anything about yet, but we'll use it to get him to talk."

Cosmo gulped as she started printing the ID off. "Are you sure that that's such a good idea?"

"Not really, but it's the only one that we have," Shadow said, remaining calm and serious. "We know that Bark works with Nack, or at least just buys from him, so we need to find out what else he's got up his sleeve. With the news that there's more Fokus that we didn't know about at Gear Steers, we just need to keep poking at Bark until we push him far enough."

"Be careful what you poke him with," Vector warned as he was handed the ID by Cosmo. "It might start off with your finger at his chest, but it could soon be the needle in his arm, and we don't want that risk."

"I'll handle it," Shadow said. "You just stay back. If I need you, I'll let you know." He then turned to the girls. "Thank you."

The girls nodded as Vector led Shadow the back right of the ground floor, showing a room with the word "evidence" written on it in the station's signature teal blue, and the door spoke with a robotic voice.

"Permission to enter?" Vector showed it to the door before swiping it into a slot, and the door opened soon after. "Permission granted."

"Thank you kindly," the crocodile grinned as he led Shadow inside.

The black and red hedgehog looked around, seeing that the room was pretty large. There were different segments relating to different kinds of evidence, from guns and drugs to clothing and jewellery if needed.

Shadow kept up with Vector as they looked around the drugs segment, seeing a glass case with several drugs in plastic bags. As they went in alphabetical order, the Fokus wasn't too difficult to find, and the crocodile moved to the centre of the case before looking at the back of the ID card.

"Each time we come in here to get something, they change the codes on the locks," Vector pointed out to Shadow. "And every time someone needs to come in here for something, they get provided the new code."

"How does it change so quickly?" Shadow asked. "Is it done automatically."

Vector nodded. "Yep. It's all Charmy's doing, so you have him to thank for that."

"I can understand why you'd have it this way," Shadow nodded. "Doesn't matter how much you trust the people in the station; when someone goes into this kinda place, you never know what they might walk away with."

"Funnily enough, that's the main reason that we had this system implemented in the first place," said Vector as he typed in the code, opening the glass case. "Some former officers that used to work for us kept using the same codes to hack into stuff and steal it."

"Same codes?" Shadow asked.

Vector nodded. "We used to have a different code for each segment, but they were all unchanged. After the corrupt cops that tried to steal everything got found out, we decided to come up with the new system, which we still use today."

"Good to hear. It sounds like a good way to keep some of the people in line if they need it," Shadow noted.

"That's one way of putting it," Vector replied, grabbing the Fokus before closing the case.

"What happens to the ID card if the code changes?" Shadow asked.

"We throw them in the trash," Vector shrugged. "If the codes change in here after we used them once, then we don't need the ID card any more. Luckily, they are recyclable, so it's very helpful for the environment."

Shadow couldn't hide his chuckle, and the two soon left the room behind them, Vector throwing the now used ID card into the trash before the door closed automatically behind the two of them.

After they'd left, they turned to head to the holding cells, with the crocodile leading the hedgehog down there. They didn't have to use ID to enter, so they went in quite easily, and Shadow noticed the door at the end of the corridor.

"The interrogation rooms are just above the holding cells?" he asked.

Vector nodded. "Yeah. Makes it easier to move them from place to place before they need to go to the penitentiary."

"So, why do you need me to interrogate Bark if he's already going there?" asked Shadow.

"Well, we don't quite have enough from him to put him away," Vector pointed out. "Plus, this is kind of a test. Avery wants to see how good you are."

Shadow sighed and nodded before a voice from a cell called him. "Oh, it's you..."

The black and red hedgehog turned to see one of the wolves from Gear Steers behind the bars sitting up on his bed. "Ah, it's you. Why the heck are you still here?"

The wolf growled. "Same reason that Bark is." He walked to the cell bars and gripped them as he snarled at Shadow, baring his fangs in a grin. "You know, when we get out of here, I think that you'll be the first person I'm going to kill." He then looked to Vector. "As for you? Well, I could use a new jacket."

The crocodile smiled. "Ah, a leathery skin joke. Good one."

He then snapped his fingers, and the bars of the cell suddenly started buzzing. An electrical current passed through the silver of the bars to come into contact with the wolf's paws, causing him to howl in pain and fall on his back.

Vector then stood over the wolf. Well, as much as he could with the bars still in the way. "You know, I've always wanted a bearskin rug. But I hear that wolf's fur is good for it too."

The wolf gulped before finding his way back to his bed, and Shadow touched the bars, seeing that they were no longer electrocuted. "This place likes to shock people, huh?"

Vector chuckled. "If it helps, we only shock the bad people."

"Yeah, it softens the blow," Shadow smirked.

The crocodile nodded and walked ahead, the hedgehog in tow, and they soon reached the interrogation rooms. There were six separate corridors, each housing a suspect or criminal, and Vector led Shadow through the second corridor before they stopped outside the window just before the door to the room.

Through the window, they saw Bark as he was sat down, a pair of cuffs around his wrists. From the angle he was standing at, Shadow could see a pair of cuffs around Bark's ankles also, possibly as a safety measure. The bear in question was sat back and breathing, almost seeming relaxed.

The two looked in, and Vector turned to Shadow. "You ready to do this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Remember, I'll be here if you need me to back you up." He handed the Fokus over to Shadow, who put it in his pocket. "Use that at the right time, or this could all go south."

Shadow nodded, placing the needle into his back pocket before entering the room. He closed the door behind him and walked around to take the seat opposite of Bark, and cleared his throat to speak.

"Bark... it's so nice to see you again," Shadow said. "What's it been? Three, four days?"

Bark sighed. "Aw, come on. Of all of the cops that they could have given me from the four rookies, I get the emo one who thinks that he's cool?"

Shadow kept his composure. "Well, unfortunately, I'm the only option right now."

"And the worst one," the bear said. "They could have given me the cool leader, or the intelligent wiz kid. I would have taken the big red dumb-ass because at least he would have been entertaining." He let out another sigh. "But, no. I got old misery guts." He then grinned. "There is something different about you, though. Have you actually been smiling more?"

The black and red hedgehog shrugged. "Something like that. I guess what helped me smile was kicking your friend's ass when we brought you all in from the Gear Steers."

"I miss the others already," Bark chuckled. "Where are they, anyway?"

"Funny you should ask. You see, they're on their way to the Gear Steers. Hell, they're probably there right now."

"Why would they need to go there?" Bark asked. "You weeded out all the bad guys from the place. Now it's just the actual boss and the people who work there that didn't want to do anything fun with their lives."

"So, selling and buying drugs and losing your actual job is fun, is it?" Shadow said. "Man, kids these days."

"You're calling me a kid, rookie?" Bark said.

"I'm going to guess that you're in your twenties, like me," Shadow said. "But you should at least act like it. You act like a bad-ass, but the only vibe I get is some punk whose parents didn't love him, so he took up a job that he didn't want and got connected with a crime boss who he didn't know and had never met to make a deal he never wanted to make."

"So what if I never met Nack?" Bark said. "It wouldn't have mattered. The dude never stays around too long, so whichever schmuck comes along after he's gone, they'll have some big shoes to fill." He then sat back again. "Besides, it's not like I didn't want to make the deal. It's just that some dipshit cops showed up at the wrong time to fuck things up, and my side got nothing."

"Oh? Nothing, huh?" Shadow chuckled, reaching behind himself and into his pocket. He produced the needle of Fokus and put it on the table close to himself. "Then what do you call that? Because that sure as shit looks like something to me."

"Where'd you get that from?"

Shadow smiled. "We stopped a bunch of thieves today, and their getaway car had all these drugs in it, including the Fokus. One of the thieves was nice enough to point out that he got the Fokus from a gas station. Sound familiar?"

Bark smirked. "That's got nothing to do with Nack. That was another deal beforehand, but it never went anywhere. And besides, I wasn't there for whenever they took it. I was chucked in here after the deal got botched, so how could I have been there?"

"I never suggested that you were," Shadow said. "I'm just suggesting that, with all of the crime that's been going on, it might not be a good idea to hold out on people." The hedgehog noticed the bear's gulp. "How long had you been hiding those drugs, Bark? Did your boss know about it, or was it just you and your little ring of morons?"

"I don't have to tell you anything that you don't need to know," Bark defended.

Shadow smiled. "And there's the first crack in your armour. Such a shame. You were holding up so well." His face then turned grimly serious. "Tell me, did anybody else know about the secret stash?"

Bark gulped. "It was just me and my little group. Bean knows, and so do the other wolves that were helping us."

"And you'd made deals before the one with Nack?" asked Shadow.

The bear nodded. "A few, but not many. Due to how little our boss actually goes to pick up shipments of new parts for himself, we have very limited windows to get the deals done."

"And was it all just buying?" Shadow asked.

Bark shook his head. "No. There were some sales from time to time."

"And I'm guessing that not all of those sales went too well, considering the amount of drugs that were hidden," the black and red hedgehog said.

Bark then perked up. "I just realised... you said that those thieves only found the drugs, right?"

Shadow nodded. "Yes. Why?"

"That's not all that we have hidden," Bark replied.

"What else is there?"

The bear hung his head for a moment before muttering. "We have some money as well... and not just from the job itself..."

"So, you had both money and drugs left over?" Shadow asked, to which Bark nodded. "Did anybody know that you were holding out on them?"

Bark shook his head. "It wasn't completely holding out. The drugs and money that we held back for ourselves were more of an insurance policy, if anything. We just didn't want to put all of what we had on the line in case a deal went bad. It's a risk that we couldn't afford to take."

"Considering how much you held back, I'm surprised some old friends of yours haven't come to collect yet," Shadow said.

"Tell me about it," Bark replied. "Anyway, that's everything I've got."

Shadow nodded and stood up, putting the Fokus back into his pocket. "Bark, you've been charged with and have confessed to possession, money laundering, distribution of banned substances, purchasing banned substances, and assault on officers of the law." He turned to leave. "I'll let you know when your court date is."

Bark sighed and puffed out a breath through his lips as Shadow left through the door, seeing Vector smiling at him and extending a hand. Shadow reached out to shake it, and the crocodile used his free hand to pat Shadow's shoulder.

"Not bad for your first interrogation, rookie," said Vector.

Shadow smiled and pulled out the Fokus. "Think I used it at the right time?" he asked.

"Surprisingly, yes," Vector chuckled.

Shadow put the Fokus back. "So, I'm going to assume that there was a camera or something watching the room so that this is all recorded?"

Vector nodded. "Thankfully, yes. I should have given you a notepad and pen just in case, but that's more for shrinks than cops themselves."

The hedgehog nodded as they both began walking out. "What about the Gear Steers?"

"Our guys are still searching that place up and down. They haven't found much yet, and that's even with the help of the mechanics there."

"Maybe we won't have to even tell them about the money thing if they find it," Shadow shrugged as the two left the interrogation sector, quickly making their way through the holding cells.

"Let's see if we can help them out," Vector smiled, heading through the doors to the entrance. "Day ain't over yet, rookie."

Shadow looked up, taking note that it was getting darker. "I prefer to think of it as the night still being young."

The crocodile shook his head, getting into his car. "Come on, newbie. Let's go help our friends out."

Shadow smiled and followed, getting into the police car that Vector had selected. It started up pretty quickly, and the two pulled out of the parking lot fast, immediately making their way for the Gear Steers.

* * *

 **I once again apologise for not posting in a while. No excuses except for laziness, really. I promi- I hope that my next chapter won't take two weeks to whip up. Regardless, I hope that you all enjoyed this one. How'd you like the interrogation scene? What about Nack? Let me know if you so wish, and I'll see you all in the next one, whenever that'll be. Hopefully not two weeks. Anyway, I wish you all a happy Halloween. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	10. Around The Clock

Espio and the group that he'd taken with him were halfway through their search around the Gear Steers. All were spread out evenly and checking out different areas, with Tails just having come back in from the outside.

"Those robbers were right about the drugs back there; there isn't a lot, so that tells us that they didn't get away with everything," said Tails.

Sonic turned to the owner of the shop. "So, what do you know about them stealing the drugs?"

The wolf shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't see a thing. I was in here fixing up somebody's car when I heard it happen. All that I heard was the engine of a loud car and some dude yelling that he's got the stuff. I didn't know what the stuff was."

Espio nodded. "Well, so far, we only know that Bark and his cronies hid the stuff somewhere outside." He turned to Tails. "Where'd you find it?"

"It was hidden in a small vent behind one of the dumpsters," Tails said. "Even then, it wasn't easy to find. They tucked it into the sides of the vent, so it was hard to reach."

"Well, maybe those morons at the jewellery store only stole what they saw," Knuckles said. "They probably didn't have the time to get all that much, let alone the foresight to look behind the dumpsters."

"There's got to be somewhere that we haven't checked..." said Sonic.

The owner pursed his lips. "Maybe you're not looking in the right place?"

"What do you mean?" the blue hedgehog asked.

The wolf grinned. "You know, I don't normally do this, but how would you boys like to visit the back room?"

"Do you think that it'd help?" asked Knuckles.

The wolf shrugged. "If it helps Green Hill's finest, then I don't see any reason not to."

Espio looked at the others, and nodded. "Yeah, let's do it."

The wolf smiled and went over to the back room in question, pulling out his key to open it up. He led the Green Hill officers inside, and spread his arms and turned around in a gesture of showing off all the equipment.

"Well, here you all go," the owner smiled as he left. "Try not to take too long, though; it's getting late."

"So, what do you think he was getting at?" Knuckles asked.

Espio smiled. "I think that I know. He heard about where Tails found the drugs that those jewel thieves took, so maybe he's helping us broaden our horizons."

"And it is possibly that Bark, Bean, or any of their gang came back here once or twice," Tails added on. "We just don't know what for."

"As much as I love where this could be going," said Sonic, "there's a lot of car stuff back here. Where would we know where to start looking?"

"I'll start with the tyres," Tails said.

"I'll go for the engines," Knuckles shrugged. "You never know."

"I'm going to head for the toolboxes," Espio said, turning to Sonic. "See? We all figured it out. And here I thought that you were supposed to be their field leader."

The blue hedgehog scoffed and shook his head. "I'll head for the wheels," he said, turning and heading in that direction.

As they were checking out the back room, a few minutes away were Vector and Shadow, driving ever closer to the auto-shop. They stopped outside in the front parking lot, parking a few spaces away from Espio's car, and then left their own.

"So, we drove all the way out here just so that we could tell these guys about the new stuff that we learned from Bark?" Shadow asked.

Vector nodded. "Pretty much, but also to help the guys out. They're running a little slow, and it's getting pretty late."

"So, what's the likelihood that Bark and company didn't hide the drugs and the money in the same place?" Shadow asked.

"I'd dare say that it stands a very good chance," the crocodile. "Smart move, if you ask me; keep a lot of the same stuff, but spread it around in different places. This is a pretty large parts shop, so there's a lot of places that Bark, Bean, or anyone else could have hidden the drugs."

Shadow nodded. "Smart thinking."

"I know, I'm the one that said it," Vector grinned. "Come on, let's get inside."

Meanwhile, inside the shop, the owner's ears picked up as he heard the sound of the garage door opening. He'd left it open for when the officers there were going to leave to save time, and he kept on his guard as he didn't know who to expect when the door started to open.

Luckily, his fears were quickly put to rest as Shadow and Vector entered, shutting the door behind them as the black and red hedgehog waved. "Hi, there. We have some friends around here. Could you tell us where they are?"

The wolf chuckled. "In the back room. Just head right on in."

"Thank you kindly," Vector smiled as he and Shadow began walking to the back room.

Sonic turned around as he heard somebody enter the room, and smiled at the two. "There they are."

"Did you miss us?" Vector asked.

"Not really," Espio replied, grinning. "So, what's new?"

"What's new is that Bark didn't just hide drugs in this place," Shadow said. "He's got some money hidden away somewhere too."

"It's not around the back where the drugs were," Tails said. "I already scoured around there, and just found the last remnants of... well, pretty much everything. Cocaine, meth, weed, Fokus, and some pills there. I'm thinking that it might be speed, but I can't tell."

Knuckles then smiled. "Hey, Tails, you said that you found those drugs in the vent behind the dumpster, correct?"

The yellow fox nodded. "Yes. Why is that important?"

"Well, maybe Bark didn't make it obvious on where to hide stuff," the red echidna shrugged.

Tails smiled as he looked over the tyres, and picked one out. He looked inside the rubber and saw small clumps of green hidden inside. His grin only widened as he picked out the clumps, unfolding them to show that it was money.

"Well, what do you know? Big red is right."

Sonic reached over and picked down a tyre, looking inside and seeing more clumps of cash. "That's not the only one there."

"Then let's get to the tyres," Espio said, grabbing one and looking for himself, also picking out a clump of cash.

Soon, the others joined. After at least fifteen minutes, they found all of the money that they could, and Tails went to grab a bag from the car. He soon returned with it, and they all began putting the cash inside it, as well as the drugs that Tails had found.

"So, who's going to be carrying the bad?" asked Knuckles.

"Who do you think?" Vector replied with a smirk, handing it to Knuckles. "We'll be in the car if you need us."

The red echidna shook his head as the others turned to leave, and he picked the bag up and lifted it over his shoulder before walking out of the back room. He stopped on the way out and smiled at the owner.

"Thanks for the help, man."

"It was no problem," said the wolf. "Just as long as you keep my ass gangster and drug free, I'll help you however you need it."

Knuckles chortled. "I appreciate it. Take care."

With that, he left out of the building, going back to the car he was in with Sonic, Tails, and Espio, taking the back seat with his blue hedgehog friend and placing the large bag of money on his lap.

"That's a lot of money in there," Espio said as he started the car up. "Bark must have been saving up for something big."

"I hope that it was worth it," said Tails. "Bark and Bean must have stung a lot of people to get that much cash."

"Maybe he wanted to try and make it out on his own?" Sonic said.

"If he did, then he wouldn't be in our holding cells right now," Espio grinned. "As good as he is, and with all his ambition, he didn't exactly plan it out all that well."

"Maybe because some new studs at the station took his ass down?" Knuckles smirked.

The purple chameleon shrugged. "That might have had something to do with it," he replied, keeping his grin briefly before turning more serious. "Look... I don't know what I can do for you before tomorrow. The best advice that I can give is to just go home and rest up."

"We know that you've done all that you can," said Sonic. "Avery can only pull so many strings for us. We know of his friendship with Dingo, but it's going to be all business tomorrow."

"That goes for you guys as well," Espio pointed out. "Newbies or not, you'd damn well better take what happens tomorrow seriously."

"We will," said Tails.

"What's on the agenda for when we get back to the base?" Knuckles asked.

"Mostly just a debriefing," said Espio. "We won't keep you guys out longer than you need to be. After all, that's how you got hurt."

"True, but it's also how we all became part robot," Knuckles smiled.

"You're really going to take every opportunity to milk that, aren't you?" Tails said, shaking his head.

"What are you complaining about?" the red echidna said. "You're part robot too."

The yellow fox chuckled. "Shut up, man."

Espio continued the drive, followed closely behind by Vector and his car, and they soon made it back to the station. They all exited their cars, heading for the entrance of the station and walking inside, going straight to the front desk.

"Hey there, boys," Cosmo said. "Have fun whipping the rookies into shape?"

"Eh, about as much fun as it could have gotten," Vector replied, showing the large bag to Cosmo and Mina. "I need a card for evidence. There's a lot of stuff in here."

Mina nodded, printing out said card and waiting as its new code was put onto it before handing it to the crocodile. "Here you go," she said.

"Thanks," Vector smiled. "Come on, Espio."

"Why me?" the purple chameleon asked.

"The day's almost over, and Avery wants to debrief the other four specifically," Vector said. "Also, it's fun to make you do stuff."

Sonic smiled, shaking his head as the two veteran cops went away before turning to the girls at the front desk. "So, just straight to the meeting room?"

Mina nodded. "He's waiting for you. And he's got a guest."

"Who is it?" asked Shadow.

"We were told to keep it a secret," said Cosmo, smiling at Tails. "Sorry if that's a bad thing."

"No, it's absolutely fine," Tails replied, hanging his head a bit and mumbling his words.

Knuckles awkwardly looked back and forth between the yellow fox and the green plant girl before clearing his own throat. "So, upstairs?"

"Yes, upstairs," Mina nodded.

"Come on then," the red echidna said, patting his fox friend on the shoulder. "We should get going."

"Uh, yeah!" Tails said, following after before turning around quickly to the girls. "I'll- we'll see you later!"

"Take care!" Mina said. As soon as the boys were out of view, she turned to Cosmo.

"What?" the plant girl asked, incensed.

"Nothing," the yellow mongoose replied, snorting to hide a chuckle, albeit poorly.

Cosmo shook her head. "Give that a rest, will you?"

"I will when you try to ask him out," said Mina.

Cosmo shook her head. "You're lucky you're my best friend."

Mina smiled. "I'd consider myself more fortunate if anything," she giggled.

The plant girl giggled back. "Well, my fortunate friend, would you like to get some drinks after we're all done?"

"Sounds good to me," Mina nodded.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow had all just approached the meeting room. Just before they reached the door, it opened up wide, and out stepped Ash, walking past them a little bit before stopping.

"Where's the fire?" asked Sonic.

"Avery's done with me, so I'm heading home," Ash replied. "That, and it'd be better if it was just you four, Avery, and our special guest."

"Did the others already go home?" Tails asked.

The male mongoose nodded. "Yep. Even Simian, who is known for being a workaholic."

"Wow. This must be pretty damn serious," Sonic said.

"You could say that," Ash replied. "Anyway, I'm heading off home. I'll see you dudes tomorrow in court."

Sonic smiled as he and his friends waved Ash away before turning to enter the room. Avery was at his usual seat at the head of the table, and sat next to him was a face they hadn't seen before.

He appeared to be a large dingo with orange fur. He had yellow hair on his head that was shaved neatly into a crew cut, and his eyes were a dull green. Like Avery wearing an advanced form of the Green Hill uniform, his friend wore a more militaristic version of the Star Light uniform, complete with several badges and ribbons surrounding the left breast.

"So glad that you could make it," said Avery. "Gentlemen, this is Dingo."

The dingo stood up, walking over and shaking hands with the four rookies. "Nice to meet you, mates," he said, his Aussie accent coming through.

"Likewise," Sonic said, being the last to shake hands with Dingo. "So... what brings you to our neck of the woods?"

"I just wanted to let you know that, despite what happens tomorrow, there's no hard feelings," Dingo said, heading back around the table to retake his seat. "I talked this over with Avery, and we both agreed that we will treat this with as much professionalism and respect as it deserves."

"So, you're not just going to lynch the crap out of us for what we did?" Knuckles asked as he and the others took seats of their own.

"You boys saved lives that night, and risked your own in the process," Dingo nodded. "But not only should you not have done that as rookies; you shouldn't have done it at all."

"Trust me," Tails said, "we're quite aware of that. It was just a case that led us from Green Hill out to Star Light."

Dingo nodded. "Then, I trust that you're also aware of the fact that my own men won't be on trial for it."

"As dumb as that rule is," said Sonic, "we do understand why. They were technically the ones who led us there, with them having been on the force longer, but it was still our operation."

"Trust me, if I could think of anything to say or do that could help, I'd do it," said Avery to the rookies. "I don't want anybody to lose their jobs so soon after just joining."

"Especially after how well you all did in your final training exercises at Green Hill Academy," Dingo smiled. "I'm very impressed with the lot of ya."

"Thank you," said Sonic. "It means a lot."

"I will ask," Tails said, "why would the commissioner of a different station in a different jurisdiction be so interested in us?"

The dingo smiled. "Well, despite the fact that the academies are strictly for their respective cities, tapes of the best performances from said academies are sent to everybody else. I'm not the only one who's read your footage, and I've been on the horn with folks in other places who liked seeing your work."

"Same here," Avery added, smiling himself. "The things that I've seen from other academies have proven to be nothing short of amazing."

"There's got to be a reason as to why you're watching footage from all of the other academies," Sonic said, pursing his lips in thought. "It can't just be to see our individual performances."

Avery walked over and placed a hand on the blue hedgehog's shoulder. "There is method to that madness, but it's not anything that you have the right to know."

Sonic nodded, knowing that it wasn't a threat, but also knowing that he shouldn't ask any further questions on the matter. "I understand."

"Good," the white bear said, walking back over to the top of the desk. "Now, go on and get out of here. You have a court date for tomorrow."

"I've been meaning to ask," said Knuckles, "what will be wearing tomorrow? We can't just go there dressed like as we are now, and I'm kinda short on suits."

"Well, I'm glad you asked," Avery said. "We've finished getting your measurements for your uniforms. You'll be wearing them tomorrow to court, albeit a more stripped down version with less body armour and weaponry attached."

"They'll be delivered to your rooms tomorrow," Dingo added. "Your first directive after waking up is to hop on down here to Green Hill, grab your uniforms, and then get changed into them before a convoy takes you to court."

"How many people are going to be there?" Shadow asked.

"It won't be the whole station," said Avery. "There'll be some of the more well-known folks there, but not everybody."

"We're having some of our finest from Star Light there as well," Dingo added.

"So, not everyone's going to be there?" asked Shadow.

"Not everyone needs to be there," replied Avery. "Only our best will be there. There won't be a jury needed, as you're not being put on trial for any major crimes. It's more of a slap on the wrist and a warning."

"If it's just that," said Sonic, "then why the fuck do we have to wear our uniforms and go to court about what we did? Seems pretty damn serious to me."

"Well, accidents happen," Dingo said. "And besides, it was your first time. You were just doing your job, but not in your city."

"We know, okay?" Sonic said, placing his head in his hands. "We know that we did something stupid. That doesn't make the rule about it any better. We know that we fucked up. More importantly, since I'm the field leader, I'm the one who fucked up."

"Dude," Tails said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's okay. We all fucked up, so it's not just your fault."

Avery walked over, looking at the blue hedgehog. "He's right. When you're a cop, mistakes happen at least once a day on the job. It doesn't matter if you're a veteran, a rookie, or even a commissioner. And, trust me, nobody's going to hold it against you tomorrow."

Dingo nodded. "Exactly. This kinda shit happens every day, mate. I've made some mistakes myself, and I'm sure that Avery has as well."

Sonic nodded. "I... I just don't want to lose my job so soon..." he said. "This is really important to me. To all of us."

"And all of us are going to be in that courtroom with you," Knuckles said, smiling. "Your ass isn't the only one being tried for it."

"Yeah, you dragged us into this mess," Tails joked. "We may as well help in dragging you out of it."

Sonic turned to his friends. "Thanks, guys. You're right. I just don't want any of us losing our jobs over some dumb-ass rule."

"Well, we haven't lost them yet," said Shadow. "We've got to get through tomorrow first. Until then, there's no need to worry about it."

Dingo smiled. "All right, it looks like you've sorted yourselves out."

Sonic chuckled. "So, what's the plan now?"

"As I said, go home," said Avery. "I'll see you all tomorrow."

Sonic nodded, turning to Dingo. "Thank you for settling me down, and just for coming here. It was an honour to meet you."

"Likewise," said Dingo. "You know, you lot have got a lot of potential. Regardless of whatever happens tomorrow, I hope to see you put it to good use one day."

"Thank you," Sonic smiled. "It means a lot."

The Aussie smiled and nodded. "Well, I'd better get my arse back over to Star Light. I'll see you lot tomorrow." He turned to shake Avery's hand. "See you then."

"You too," the bear nodded, watching as Dingo left.

"Ooh, boy..." Sonic said, combing his quills back with his hands.

"Still worried?" Avery asked.

"That's one word for it," said Tails, feeling his friend's anxiety. He then looked at his watch. "You know, it isn't that late. If we're lucky, we might be able to get a quick bite to eat from Jade Mountain."

"Sounds good to me," Knuckles grinned, patting his stomach.

Avery smiled. "Go ahead. You're more than free to take a police vehicle of your own for that one. Just use your ID card, and you're all set."

"Man, technology is awesome," Tails smiled further. "All right, let's head out."

"Yes, oh fearless leader," Sonic replied, turning to exit the room.

His friends followed, and they made their way to the elevator as they didn't have to get anything from their own rooms. They went down to the ground floor, exiting and heading for the exit before Knuckles spoke.

"How about we bring someone with us for food?" he said.

Sonic grinned, knowing who Knuckles was talking about. "It depends on how busy they are."

"And where they are," Tails said, heading over to the front desk. Thankfully, it was just Mina there, so he didn't have to worry about being nervous. "Have you seen Vector and Espio around?"

The mongoose nodded. "Yeah. They're in the armoury on the second floor."

Tails nodded. "Well, somebody's going to have to go tell them about this," he spoke.

"Not it!" the other three called out unanimously.

"Seriously?" Tails said, turning to face his friends and glaring at Knuckles. "It was your idea."

Knuckles shrugged. "You're closer to the stairs, and the elevators are being used."

"We'll wait down here for you," Sonic added. "Hell, maybe your girlfriend will pop up while you're gone?"

Tails shook his head, wandering up the stairs as he flipped a middle finger at his friends. He carried on up the two flights of steps before reaching his destination, going straight for the armoury and waving as he got there.

"Oh, hey there, fluffy," said Vector, playing a game on his computer. Espio was stood behind him, as was Charmy, who spoke.

"Shoot that zombie on the left side!" he warned.

"Got it!" Vector said.

"Head shot! Good one!" Espio added, before wincing. "Better get to cover."

Vector's character madly rushed for said cover before being killed by a sniper. "Fuck! So close that time!"

"Uh... guys?" Tails said awkwardly.

Charmy turned to see the fox. "Sorry about that. New zombie survival game."

"I know. I can understand the importance of it," Tails grinned.

"What are you still doing at the station?" Vector asked. "Shouldn't you be at home?"

"Actually, I was tasked with asking if any of you guys wanted to come out to Jade Mountain. We're grabbing a late night snack, and thought we'd invite you."

"Because of our fearless leadership and courage today?" Espio asked.

Tails paused briefly. "Sure. Let's go with that."

Vector smiled, turning to Charmy. "How about it?"

The bee shrugged. "I don't see why not. I've heard good things about their ribs."

Tails smiled. "Let's do this, then."

The others nod, and Vector turns off his computer before getting out of his seat and grabbing his coat. The other two did the same, and then the yellow fox led them down the stairs and to the ground floor, where they saw Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles waiting for them.

"There they are!" said the red echidna. "I had my doubts that Tails could convince you."

"What, you think we're going to turn down the opportunity for free ribs?" Vector asked. "That's just crazy talk."

"Who's paying?" Tails asked. "Not it, by the way."

"We're exempt from the rule, since you're inviting us," Vector pointed out.

Shadow smiled. "Not it."

Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other. "There's only one way to settle this," the blue hedgehog said.

"Agreed," the red echidna replied.

They both raised their right hands in fists before bringing up their left hand, turning it so that the palm was facing upwards. They then smashed their fists three times against their left hands before adding a fourth.

"Rock!" Sonic called.

"Dammit!" Knuckles replied, landing scissors.

Sonic smiled, shaking hands with his friend. "You were a most honourable opponent."

"Yeah, well, second place has to drive us there," the red echidna winked as their hands broke apart.

"There's always a stipulation," Sonic rolled his eyes. "All right, let's get going."

The others all agreed, and they left through the station doors, finding their way over to one of the police cars. Sonic went and unlocked it, getting into the driver's seat while Tails called for shotgun, taking the front seat with his friend, and the other four managed to get into the back.

Sonic started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot, managing to get onto the main road before beginning the drive to Jade Mountain. Since it was rather late, Sonic didn't see the point in wasting any further time, so he focused on driving whilst the others talked.

"So, how much will all of the drugs that we found help in convicting Bark and his cronies?" asked Tails.

"Quite a lot, actually," said Vector. "But it's not like Shadow's confession wasn't enough to convict Bark and his gang in the first place."

"You should have been there the other night," Knuckles recalled. "During our chase with Nack, after we took out one of his vehicles, one of the guys was still alive. Shadow took the guy out of an upside down car and helped us to get the answers that we needed."

"Damn," Espio said, turning to the black and red hedgehog. "You really know how to talk to people, dude."

"It's a gift," Shadow shrugged.

Sonic smiled as he pulled into the parking lot, finding a good space before getting out of the car with the others. They made their way to the restaurant, walking in and going up to the counter. Since there wasn't anybody else there this late at night, it was pretty empty.

"Hey!" the owner said, smiling. "You guys better get your orders in quick; I'm closing up soon."

"Just enough ribs and fries for all of us," said Knuckles.

"Sure thing," the owner said, smiling.

"Remember, you're paying," Sonic said to Knuckles.

"I know. Go and find some seats, and I'll bring the food over for us when it's ready."

The others nodded, going to find a table to sit at. They found one by the window, but there weren't enough seats for them all. Vector simply went and grabbed two extra seats, whilst Espio grabbed a third, and they all sat around the table, waiting for their food.

"Nothing like some late night sweet and sour ribs before a restless night," said Tails.

"Hey, you don't have to worry so much about it," said Vector. "Remember, we're all going to be there to vouch for you."

"But will they take your word to help the rookies when that's something that Star Light doesn't have to worry about?" Sonic asked. "That's the main question, in my opinion."

"Well, your opinion won't help you that much tomorrow," Espio shrugged. "There's only so much that we can do to help you."

Sonic smiled. "For what it's worth, you guys have been awesome in teaching us today."

"Yeah," Tails agreed. "It did suck not being able to run our own stuff, but it was nice to hand the reigns over to somebody else for a change."

"With the exception of Liam Neeson over here," Vector said, point a thumb to Shadow.

The black and red hedgehog smiled a bit. "It did feel good to have that kind of control over a bad guy. But it's one thing to have somebody in that position; imagine if I hadn't had the Fokus with me to help. Even worse, imagine if he weren't tied to that chair."

"I thought that the cool one of the group wasn't allowed to worry," Knuckles said, walking over with the food and setting it down.

"We're all part of the team, big red," Sonic said. "We all have a right to worry. Even you."

The red echidna nodded. "It's a good thing that Shade knows about it already."

"Will she be able to make it tomorrow?" asked Charmy.

"Nah. She'll be super busy, from what I understand."

"What's happening?" Sonic asked.

"Apparently, the person who normally teaches her martial arts class got sick, so she's been given a new teacher for the day," Knuckles said as he began eating.

"Isn't she just shy of a blue belt?" Tails asked.

"Indeed she is," Knuckles nodded. "But I'd rather her normal teacher was the one guiding her. This other one has a reputation for being a little bit too hands-on with his pupils."

"If he tries that shit on Shade," Sonic said, "maybe she'll show this new teacher a picture of you and he'll be scared off."

"Unfortunately, they don't allow phones while training," Knuckles shrugged.

"Maybe she'll show him beforehand," said Shadow. "Shame you can't be there to punch this bastard out if he tries anything."

"If I did, I'm sure that I'd get Shade expelled from her class," the red echidna said. "It's fun to dream it, though."

"Shade's a tough chick," said Sonic. "If you can't be there to kick this pervy teacher's ass, she might be able to do it for you."

Knuckles smiled. "I've learned very wisely to try and not get on my girlfriend's bad side. I'd like to think that I've done well for myself so far."

"Considering how long you two have been together now, I'm not surprised," Sonic said. "How long's it been?"

"Almost four years now," Knuckles said. "Trust me, if I had the money to buy her the right rock to put on her finger, I'd do it. But the trouble is finding the right one. And having the money to do it."

"If the station can help, you just let us know," Espio said.

"Really?" Knuckles asked.

Vector nodded. "Absolutely. Obviously, we'll have to hold off depending on what happens tomorrow, but we'd be more than happy to help."

Knuckles smiled. "I appreciate it. I do. But, I'd rather earn the money on my own terms. Do it my way, you know?"

Espio smiled. "That's a good answer."

"Speaking of answers," Tails said, "we haven't gotten one from Charmy about the ribs."

"That's because you didn't ask me yet," the bee replied.

"Very well," Tails said. "How do they taste?"

"Really good," Charmy smiled. "I'm so glad that you asked."

The others smiled, and all kept on eating their food, talking and laughing with each other. Soon, it was time to close up, and the owner walked over to their table as they started standing up to leave, speaking to them.

"If you want, you can take it back home with you," the owner said. "It's all in containers anyway, and I've got plenty in the back, so you can take them home with you if you want."

"Nah, I'm good," Knuckles said.

"Yeah, me too," Sonic added. "I'm stuffed."

Almost everyone else declined, but Shadow spoke up. "I'll take mine back."

The owner nodded and smiled. "In that case, take care."

Shadow nodded, and turned to follow his friends as they left the restaurant. They headed for their car, getting in it as the owner was locking up the restaurant, with some workers leaving and getting into their own vehicles before leaving with them.

"So, is there any reason why you wanted to take your food back with you?" Tails asked.

Shadow nodded. "Maria."

"Oh, that's right," the yellow fox said. "She's been working more shifts at her job lately, hasn't she?"

The black and red hedgehog nodded again. "It hasn't been all good for her, and I don't want her waking up sick and such. She barely has time for breakfast, and I'm never there to make it for her, so..."

"Say no more," Sonic nodded. "I'll drop you off first, okay?"

"Thank you," Shadow smiled.

The blue hedgehog smiled and gave a thumbs up before starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot. Wasting little time, he began driving along the roads of Green Hill, soon arriving at a small house just on the outside of the city, pretty far from the police station.

Shadow exited the car, making sure that he had the container with him, and turned to wave at Sonic and the others. "Thanks!"

"No problem!" Sonic replied.

"And remember, you have to wake up early tomorrow!" Vector said.

"I will!" Shadow replied.

Those in the car waved, and Shadow waved back, watching as they drove off. He then sighed to himself, keeping his container held close as he walked towards the front door of his and Maria's house. He knelt down next to the welcome mat, grabbing the spare key from under it, and unlocked the front door with it.

He entered the house, closing the door and locking it behind him. He quickly made his way into the kitchen, heading over to the microwave and placing the container of ribs inside of it before heading to the living room.

He saw Maria passed out on the couch, and the TV was on, having changed to one of those late night sell everything channels. Shadow saw that Maria looked pretty cold, and she did have a blanket which had slipped onto the floor, leaving her in her pink pyjamas.

Carefully, Shadow placed the blanket back over her, smiling a little bit as she snuggled into the warmth of the covers. He debated turning the TV off, but then went for a desk near the window to grab a sticky note and a pen.

Using the light from the television, he wrote on the note and went to the kitchen, placing it on the microwave and reading what it read. "Maria, your breakfast is in here. Put it in for five minutes, and it should be good. Sorry I got back so late."

"Well then," he said to himself, turning the TV off. "Time to get some sleep."

He then went upstairs to his bedroom, taking off his clothes and leaving him in just his boxers before getting into his bed, wrapping himself up in the covers and closing his eyes, hoping that whatever tomorrow would bring, it wouldn't affect Maria in any negative way.

'I can take it...' he thought to himself. 'I can take what happens to me. But what if something bad were to happen to her?'

* * *

 **And, there you have it! And it wasn't two weeks off! It was damn close though, and I know that. But I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter. It is more of a filler one, but the next chapter will probably be a bit longer as it will be their court date. What will happen for their future? Who knows? Not even me, I'll tell you that much. Anyway, I will see you all in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	11. The Responsible Party

The alarm clock buzzed, and Nack woke and calmly turned to his side, pressing the switch to turn the alarm off. He briefly stretched before sitting up in his bed. He removed the covers, wearing a pair of dark blue lounge pants and a black vest to go with it.

He wandered over to the nearby closet, searching through as he picked what he would wear for today. He settled on a simple light grey suit, consisting of a deep silvery coloured blazer, slacks of a similar colour that went with it, along with a white dress shirt, a dark grey dress vest, black shoes, and a silver and red striped tie.

He folded these clothes before placing them onto his bed, smiling as he thought over the progress he and his men made the day before when it came to setting things up; they made the main office into Nack's little home, complete with a shower, a bedroom, and a small kitchen. His two men had their own rooms also, so he didn't need to worry too much.

He sighed and went to the bathroom, removing his clothes and placing them in the hamper before switching the shower on and stepping under it. After he was finished, he stepped out and checked his hair in the mirror, deciding to slick it back a bit before drying off.

He walked back out to his bedroom and grabbed his suit before going back to his closet, which had a mirror in it. He picked out a new pair of dark purpler boxers to wear before then beginning to put the suit on.

He started with the bottoms, slipping into them easily before grabbing the brown leather belt that came with them, slipping it through the loops of the slacks and buckling it at the front, smiling and looking down.

"Well, that fits just perfectly. Now for the rest," he said to himself.

He quickly reached into the closet again, not stopping until he had come across a bulletproof vest. He quickly put it on over his chest, making sure that it was zipped up before smiling to himself and continuing to get dressed.

He slipped on the white shirt, buttoning it up from the bottom to the top, leaving the collar up for his tie. He grabbed said tie and placed it around his neck before tying it up, pulling the knot that he had made up to his neck to finish.

He then slipped on the grey vest, which had a zip at the front. He pulled the zip up to do up the vest, smiling at the fact that none of the Kevlar underneath his clothing was showing through so far.

He soon reached for the blazer, and just as he was slipping it on, he heard a door open behind him. "Hello?" he asked.

"Ah, just making sure that you're awake," said the voice, being one of the humans. "Your coffee and breakfast are ready."

Nack smiled. "Thank you. I'm almost finished here."

"There's something else, sir."

"Oh?" Nack wondered aloud, putting on his cuff links. "What is it?"

"I've heard rumours that those cops from the Star Light docks are going to court today," the human said.

Nack chuckled. "Ah, yes. The old rule of not being able to run operations in other cities and their jurisdictions... the hearing shouldn't be this soon, though."

The human shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I heard."

The purple weasel nodded back, grabbing a silver trilby hat with a black stripe around it. "It is good news, nonetheless. But pointless. I've no intentions of going back to Green Hill just to deal with some greenhorns that won't have jobs any more." He put his hat on and turned around. "So? How do I look?"

"It's amazing that you stole from a store with such good taste," the human smirked.

"I'll take that as a yes," Nack said, walking over to the human. "Let's go. I'm hungry."

The human stepped out of the way, and they walked downstairs to a larger kitchen. Whilst the ones they had to themselves in their own rooms were useful, they were much smaller compared to what they had downstairs. They all sat around a wooden table, and Nack smiled at his slices of toast with raspberry jam and cup of coffee.

"Ah... just how I like it," Nack smiled. "Black."

"Makes it easy to remember," the second human smiled, sitting down with the first human.

Nack started biting into his toast, taking a good chunk out before swallowing it down. "Everything is going right on schedule, I assume?"

"Indeed it is, sir," the second human replied. "The crime bosses are on their way. Since Westopolis is a far away place, they have a lot of distance to travel, but they should be here on time."

Nack smiled. "It'll be nice to meet them again."

"How do you know that they'll trust you?" asked the first human.

"As I said to you the other night, I set them all free right here in Westopolis a long time ago. With the money that I had saved up, I gave them all more than enough to start their own lives in other cities."

"So, you haven't sold them out?" replied the second human.

"While it is something that I'm known for," said Nack, "there are those that you don't just hand over at the drop of a hat. There are a small handful that I trust to handle things in their own way when push comes to shove."

The humans both nodded, choosing to remain silent as they continued eating their breakfasts. Soon, they were all finished, and they left the front doors of the prison to get into their car, with both of the humans in the front of it.

"Do you have the cases with you?" Nack asked as he climbed into the back seat.

"They're in the trunk," replied the human in the driver's seat.

"Very well," Nack said, sitting in the back. "Let's get to it."

 **Meanwhile, back at Green Hill City...**

Sonic looked at himself in the mirror of his dorm room, having just finished putting on his uniform. "Huh..." he said to himself. "It's not too bad, actually..."

"You like the feel of the fabric, I see," said a voice.

Sonic turned to see Espio walked in, and smiled at him. "Yeah. It actually feels pretty good. Looks good, too."

The purple chameleon nodded. "Well, I hate to break up this party of narcissism, but you've got to get some breakfast."

"Do we have time for that before going to court?"

"We picked you up some grub earlier this morning," Espio said. "Since we clock in earlier than you guys do, we went ahead and got you breakfast. Check your microwave."

As Espio left, Sonic went over to the small kitchen in his room and opened the microwave door. He saw an easy to microwave burger, complete with a cheese slice and some relish sauce, and next to the burger was a bundle of fries in a red packet.

He chuckled to himself and left the burger in the microwave, taking the relish, cheese slice, and fries out, setting it to about one minute twenty before letting the machine do its work.

"Shame that there's no coffee in my pot..." he mumbled to himself. "Oh, wait. I have a Knuckles for that."

The blue hedgehog wandered to his dorm door, opening it up with his ID card before stepping out into the hall, going over to Knuckles' door. He knocked on it carefully, and a few moments later, the red echidna opened his dorm room door, dressed in uniform and looking clean cut.

"Hey, dude," Sonic said. "Got any coffee?"

Knuckles smiled. "Yeah." He then looked past Sonic. "Tails, Shadow, if you want a drink of coffee, better get your word in now. I just have enough for everybody."

"I'll pass!" Tails called. "I've got some tea with me."

"Come in here anyway," Knuckles said as Shadow left his own dorm room, passing by the echidna and Sonic. "We can all have a quick sit down over breakfast and hot beverages as we talk about getting fired."

"Come off it, will you?" Sonic said, turning around.

"Where are you going?" Tails asked, walking out with his tea and a small packet of morning biscuits bars.

"To grab my breakfast, which apparently isn't as healthy as yours," Sonic smirked.

He quickly went and grabbed his burger from the microwave before replacing it with the fries, putting them on for the same time. As he waited, he grabbed a plate before going about setting up his burger by placing the cheese slice on the patty before grabbing a knife to cut the relish packet open, carefully squeezing it out onto the burger.

"I'm not normally a relish guy," Sonic said to himself, "but it's not the worst thing in the world. It's like all the other ingredients you'd want on a burger in a sauce like form."

Soon, the microwave beeped again, indicating that his fries were done. He sat up and got them from the microwave, placing them with his burger on the plate. He then walked out of his room and over to Knuckles' room, where he saw his friends sat around a small table, eating their food and drinking their drinks.

"So, what's everyone else got for breakfast?" asked Sonic as he sat down.

"I had a bowl of cereal before I came out here," Shadow said. "I'm all set."

"And I had some chocolate energy bars," Knuckles added. "Looks like breakfast was kind of a rushed job this morning, eh?"

"You can say that again," Tails said, sipping his tea. "Mmm... nothing like it."

Sonic smiled, taking a sip of his hot coffee, smiling even more as it passed down his throat. "Milk and two sugars?"

"That's how you like it, right?" Knuckles asked.

"Yep," Sonic nodded.

"Shame Shadow doesn't go as elaborate with his coffee," Knuckles replied. "Just milk and coffee."

"Nothing wrong with drinking it how you want to drink it," Shadow smiled. "And besides, I'm not going to take coffee criticisms from the dude who puts honey into his coffee."

"It gives it flavour," Knuckles defended. "Plus, it's cheaper to buy than sugar. What's not to like about it?"

Tails chuckled. "Anybody want a breakfast bar?"

The red echidna raised his hand. "I'll take one. Those energy bars did almost nothing for my stomach."

"It's probably because you're so used to eating meat a lot," the yellow fox replied.

Sonic turned to Knuckles. "Before you ask, no, you're not having any of my burger. You can have a fry or two, though."

Knuckles grinned and took a few fries, stuffing them into his mouth. "Thank you."

The blue hedgehog laughed and shook his head, turning to Shadow. "How about you? Was your cereal enough?"

"It will be for me," Shadow replied. "I didn't need to have sugar with it, so I'm fine."

"Yeah, you get all of your energy from your edginess," Knuckles said.

"Or from Rouge," Sonic winked. "I'm amazed that she hasn't worked you out yet."

The black and red hedgehog shook his head. "Will you guys give that a rest? There's nothing between us, okay? There never has been."

"I'm going to tell her that you said that," Sonic smirked.

"Well... not nothing," Shadow said. "It's... complicated."

"No, it isn't," said Sonic. "You're just making it complicated."

"Rouge doesn't make it any easier."

"I don't think that she can make it any easier," Tails said. "Let's face it: she likes you. And as much as you'd like to deny it, back when you two were thick as thieves, you liked her too. At least a little bit. You might even still like her today."

"Like I said," Shadow replied, "it's complicated."

The yellow fox just nodded in reply, knowing better than to prod any further before continuing drinking his tea. Soon, everyone was finished, and they all left Knuckles' room, going about closing and locking their own rooms up before heading downstairs to the ground floor.

"Ah, there you are," said Espio, stood by the front desk. "You guys ready to do this?"

"About as ready as we can be," replied Sonic.

The purple chameleon nodded. "Come on. Avery and the others are waiting outside for you."

The group nodded, walking out to the front parking lot. Instead of them all getting into one car, they each had individualised cars that they got into the backs of, the reason for this mostly being security and safety.

"So, what's with the convoy?" Sonic asked as the car he was in started up.

"It's just in case some people on the outside get any ideas," replied Lupe, who was driving. "You never know who could be watching out there."

"Yeah, I think that I see what you mean," Sonic nodded. "It's better to have us all in our own cars just in case, and not have us all be hurt in the same car should it come to that."

"Exactly," Lupe replied, before sighing. "Listen, if there's anything that I can do for you, just let me know."

"Isn't it a little bit late for that?" Sonic teased lightly.

Lupe grinned. "Good point. But just know that the force will be more than willing to help you, regardless of whatever happens in court."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "I know. And I know that you're going to vouch for us all as best as you can. But there's no point in pretending that we can stop what happened."

"You talk about what you did like it's a bad thing," the grey wolf replied. "You did what you did to save those girls and to stop Nash."

"The girls were more of a sudden swerve," Sonic pointed out. "They were just there, but of course we had to save them."

"Exactly," Lupe said. "You didn't have to save those girls, but you did it anyway. If you hadn't, who knows where they'd be?"

"I'd hate to think about where they'd be..." Sonic shuddered. "I'm supposed to be going on a date with one of them tomorrow. But I didn't ever stop to think about what might happen after this is all said and done. Fuck..."

"It won't be all bad," said Lupe. "You're all rookies, okay? Nobody could have predicted what else might have happened on that night. If you hadn't gone out there, trust me, you'd be regretting it a hell of a lot more."

Sonic sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I may as well buck up and face the music."

"That's the spirit," Lupe chuckled. "Look, everything will be fine. Just try not to worry about it too much."

The blue hedgehog nodded again and sat back in his chair, breathing out a long sigh as the rest of the journey continued. Soon, he felt the car slowing down, which indicated that everyone was close to the court.

"Almost there," Lupe said.

"Yeah, it seems slow," Sonic noted. "You know, considering that it's such a small group that's going, we're sure taking a lot of cars to the court."

Lupe chuckled before continuing the drive in silence, following the rest of the police convoy to the courthouse's front courtyard. They managed to find a parking space along with the other cars there, and soon made way for the courthouse itself.

Sonic looked up at the large house; there was a pair of brick pillars that held a small protrusion of the building up, which was marble. It had a triangular roof, and the words "Green Hill Municipal Court" were etched into the marble at the front of it, filled in with dull gold paint to make the name stand out a bit more.

The large building itself was made of brick, the hard work that went into it evident on every part of the structure. The cement that held it together was blackened somewhat, and the bricks themselves were various shades of orange, all of them bright.

"Well, let's not waste any more time," said Avery, joining with the others.

"I'm surprised that there's no press here," said Ash.

"I'm not so much," replied Simian. "We didn't really tell anybody that this was going to happen, because they don't need to know."

"You say that like it's an embarrassment," Lupe said, somewhat pointedly.

"I'm saying it because it needs to be said," the gorilla sighed. "The less people that know about this, the better."

Avery shook his head. "It's a good thing that Dingo never cared for the paparazzi all that much either."

Sonic looked around, seeing a few cars from Star Light. "It looks like they're here already."

"Then let's join them," said the bear, entering the building.

Sonic and his friends took a look around on the inside, liking the traditional look of the courthouse. They were in a corridor with red tiles on the floor, and the corridor led to a long hallway with several doors on either side, each for different courtrooms.

Sonic looked ahead and noticed a staircase which led to the upper floor, where he guessed that it was more of the same as the first floor he was on. He was snapped from his distraction as Knuckles pulled his arm.

"Dude? You there?" the red echidna asked.

The blue hedgehog shook his head a bit. "Uh... yeah. Sorry. Got distracted."

Tails then sidled up on Sonic's left side. "It does look pretty impressive, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "You almost hate to get fired in a building as good looking as this."

He turned to see Avery at the front desk to the left of the entrance, talking with the secretary behind it. "So, which room are we in?" the commander asked.

"Room 4 on this floor," the secretary replied. "Better hurry."

"Thank you," Avery replied, turning to the others. "All right, let's get going."

The group nodded, following their commander until they'd reached the fourth room. As soon as they entered inside, they took in its look; a typical seeming courtroom, with a large array of long seats for those attending to be sat at. As they followed the path, they saw a small wooden gate blocking off the civilians from the people who were actually taking part in the case.

Past the gate were several desks with chairs attached, obviously for the opposing sides vying for their dominance over their case. At the end of the room was a high and wide podium with an expensive looking black leather chair for the judge to sit at. At the far right side of the podium stood a security guard, a large Mobian boar clad in a pair of brown slacks, a black military jacket with some awards on it, and black army boots.

Avery turned to see Dingo and several of his men sat at the left side of the room, so he went over to greet him. "Good to see that you got here so early," Avery commented, shaking the Aussie's hand.

"You too," Dingo smiled as the handshake stopped. "Remember, I won't go easy on you just because we're friends. But there's no hard feelings, okay?"

"I know," Avery nodded. "It's just business."

"You know, even though we don't have lawyers," said Sonic, "I do like the layout of the courtroom."

"Same here," Dingo replied. "Although, I do wonder why we have the civilian seats out, considering that this is a private hearing."

"What about the jury?" asked Knuckles.

"Not necessary," replied Lupe. "Anyone else on both sides of the case will be sat with their defendants."

The red echidna nodded. "Right. That honestly makes a lot of sense."

"All rise for the honourable judge Ryker," said the security guard as the judge, a male Mobian bald eagle. "All sit for the honourable judge Ryker."

With that, everyone quickly rushed to find a seat. Sonic sat at the desk on his side with Tails, Shadow, and Knuckles, whilst Avery was at the end of it. The other members of Green Hill Police Department that were there took their own seats on different desks.

The same was somewhat true for Star Light as well, as Dingo sat at the main desk with the officers that helped from the other night also being sat there at the desk with him, and several other members of Star Light Police Department took their seats.

The guard then walked over to Green Hill's side, and Avery stood up, raising his right hand and waiting as the four that sat with him did the same. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" the guard asked.

"We do," they said.

The boar then went over to Star Light's side, who had already stood up and did the same right hand motion as the guard spoke to them. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"We do," they replied.

The guard nodded before walking over to Ryker, handing him some documents. "This is for the case of Green Hill versus Star Light."

The eagle nodded. "I'm aware of all of this. Dingo, Avery, nice to see you both again. It's been a while."

"It has," Avery smiled.

"Sadly, this isn't the time or place to catch up," the judge said, looking at his bear friend.

"I understand," Avery nodded.

Ryker turned to the four young officers at the table. "So, it's come to my understanding that, a few nights ago, you were chasing down Nack the weasel, also known as Fang. Is this correct?"

"Yes, your honour," said Sonic.

"And during that chase, they led you to Star Light City, where you didn't catch them, but you did save the girls that they were harbouring."

"Also true, your honour," the blue hedgehog said.

"And you did this knowing that you shouldn't have been running operations in jurisdictions outside of your own?"

Sonic grimaced a bit at this, but sighed and nodded. "Yes, your honour. But-"

"I know," Ryker nodded. "You were doing what you thought was right. You think I haven't heard it before?" The eagle then chuckled a bit. "The only difference is, I actually believe that you all tried your best."

"We never meant to step on anybody's toes," Sonic said. "And we saved those girls. Isn't that enough?"

"In normal circumstances, yes," the eagle nodded. "But these aren't normal circumstances. You were running an operation of your own in a place that you didn't belong in."

"With all due respect," Knuckles said, "you're a judge for Green Hill. I'm sure that you've had to fill in for people in other cities before... right?"

"A reasonable assumption," Ryker said, "and I have done so from time to time."

"Then what makes you so exempt from that rule?" the red echidna asked.

"The fact that your next few words will allow my next few actions to more easily decide your fate if you carry on," Ryker said pointedly.

Sonic stood up, looking at his red friend. "I've got this. Just chill, okay?" Knuckles grunted, but nodded, letting his friend continue. "What do you mean by not normal circumstances?" Sonic asked.

"The events surrounding it," the judge said. "First of all, you're all fresh out of the academy still. Secondly, there was the car accident that happened on your way back to Green Hill. From what I understand, you all have implants now?"

"Really?" asked one of the Star Light officers. Sonic turned and recognised him as the cat from the other night. "That's kinda cool, actually."

"Whilst I'm sure that my opponents appreciate the compliment," Dingo said, "I'm not sure that it's necessary right now, Cameron."

"Eh, can't blame a guy for trying," the cat shrugged.

"Let's try to remain focused on the task at hand here, shall we?" Ryker said. "Now, Avery. Do you have anything to say on your behalf?"

"Only that, whatever decision you make, I will respect it, as will the rest of the officers in my stead," the bear said.

The eagle chuckled. "We're not that close to a conclusion just yet, but I do admire that about you. There are some things that I need to consider."

"Such as?" Sonic ventured.

"Well, I'd like to ask Star Light a few questions," Ryker replied, turning to the opposite table. "So, does what they're saying check out?"

"It does, your honour," the caiman replied. "They chased Nack, wound up in Star Light, and me, Cameron, and Spencer helped to weed out that weasel."

"Except that he escaped," Ryker pointed out.

The caiman nodded. "True. But it wasn't for lack of trying. For rookies, these new guys have a lot of guts and determination. It's a shame that they took a small victory that night, followed by what happened next."

"I understand," said Ryker. "Thank you for your words, Walsh."

Walsh nodded again. "No problem."

The judge then turned to Spencer. "And you have the same account?"

"Yep," the wolf shrugged. "There's nothing that I can say that my fellow officers haven't said already. Green Hill's newest just got caught up in a bad spot trying to do some good. I said it myself on that night; a cop is still a cop, and we all have to help each other whenever we can."

"Whilst I admire that," Ryker spoke, "that ultimately changes nothing. But it does reaffirm my trust in what Star Light's side is saying."

"So, what does that mean for us?" Shadow asked.

"Ah, so he does speak," Ryker smirked. "Well, I'd like to tell you that everything is fine, but the fact remains that you broke a big rule by doing what you did."

"And what about Star Light?" Tails asked. "I know that they're not the ones in trouble, since it was their city, but don't they get anything?" He then quickly turned to the other table, gulping. "Sorry..."

"It's no trouble mate," Dingo replied, standing up. "What the fox is saying is right. It is true that Green Hill are more in the wrong, but my own officers did help them."

"Yeah, but it was still their op," Cameron pointed out. "We offered to take responsibility for it, but they kept it on themselves anyway."

Ryker cocked an eyebrow, turning to Avery. "Is this true?"

The bear nodded. "It is. Does that change anything for my men?"

Ryker sighed, hanging his head. "I wish that I could say it does, but..."

"I get it," Avery said, nodding. "You can cushion the blow, but you can't stop the sting, huh?"

The eagle nodded. "Pretty much." He then sat more upright. "Despite the testimonies provided by both sides, the fact is that Green Hill is responsible for breaking this rule. As a result, they are guilty, and they shall have to be punished for it."

'Oh, God...' Sonic thought to himself. 'This can't be it... we just got our jobs as cops, dammit! And I have a date tomorrow! I mean, sure, Amy knows that I might not even have a job by tomorrow, but that would just dampen the mood in the worst way. I... I don't want to lose this...'

Ryker sighed once more, and almost had a look of regret in his eyes, as if to apologise for the fact that he was just doing his job. "As of today, Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails are all hereby stripped of their badges and titles in the Green Hill Police Department. You are to clear your desks by tomorrow morning."

"So, that's it?" Knuckles asked. "We're fired? Just like that?"

Ryker chuckled. "Oh, it's not exactly all that simple. All that I've heard since you guys started is how good you are. So, you're fired from being police officers, yes. And you also have to leave your officers. But that doesn't mean that you're completely done."

'I knew it!' Sonic's thoughts said, running rampant. 'We're done forever! No more helping people, chasing down bad guys, or looking good doing it... wait. Did he just say that we're not done?' His thoughts suddenly had a much more positive tone to them.

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" asked Avery.

The eagle nodded. "You shall work as freelance agents. You will mostly work in Green Hill, and will have a base set up here, but you won't directly work for G.H.P.D. any more."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Sonic asked.

"Meaning that, whichever department or jurisdiction calls you in, you must answer said call," Ryker smiled. "Don't get me wrong, it won't be the much more important stuff. But if you are needed, then we'll let you know."

"So... what does that make us now?" Shadow asked.

"I guess that, technically, it makes you bounty hunters," said Ryker. "But bounty hunters that operate within at least some legal confines."

"So, no shooting rampages or yelling racial slurs to get what we want?" Knuckles grinned.

"If this were Westopolis, then perhaps," Ryker said, laughing. "But to my knowledge, no, you can't do that." He then raised his gavel, looking back and forth between Avery and Dingo. "Any last objections?"

The bear turned to his friend. "I don't have any problems with it. You?"

The dingo shook his head. "Absolutely no issue here, mate."

Ryker nodded. "Then by the power vested in me as judge of this court, starting on Monday, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow shall all work as freelance agents." He then hit his gavel off his block. "And just like that, this trial is now over."

"Really?" Avery asked. "That was much quicker than I thought it would be."

Ryker smiled. "Well, I have a lot of cases to work today. I figured that I'd start with the least strenuous one."

Sonic then spoke up. "Wait!"

"Yes, my boy?" the eagle asked.

"Um... if we have to clear our desks by tomorrow morning, does that mean that we get the day off?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"It does," the judge shrugged. "We still have some things to prepare for you, and they should be ready by Monday. Why?"

"Blue boy here has a date," Knuckles said, placing an arm around his friend's shoulders. "Imagine the shock that she'll feel now that her boyfriend is no longer a cop."

Sonic hung his head slightly before looking at the judge. "Permission to elbow my friend in the stomach?"

"Denied," the eagle said. "I can see the temptation, but you are still in a court of law."

The red echidna removed his arm from his friend, chuckling. "See? You can't hit me. Nee-ner nee-ner."

Sonic shook his head, turning to the judge. "Thank you for giving us all a second chance."

The judge shrugged. "Don't thank me just yet. You have to prove to me that I made the right decision. More importantly, you must prove it to your boss."

Avery nodded. "I've said it before, Ryker: I have faith in them. New as they may be, that doesn't shake my trust."

The eagle smiled. "I'm glad that you see it that way. Now, before I get interrupted again, I have a busy day ahead of me. The fact that I had to get called in as a last minute slot for this trial doesn't help matters."

"Well... I mean, it helped our matters," Tails shrugged.

The judge chuckled. "And you'd better prove that my decision matters. Take care."

Avery walked over to Ryker, as did Dingo, and they both shook his hand, thanking him. They even did the same to the security guard, purely for courteous reasons, before turning and heading out, closely followed by the men in their respective steads.

"So, what do we do for the rest of the day?" Sonic asked Avery as they left the courtroom.

"Well, you still work for me for today, so as soon as I have some work for you, I'll let you know," Avery replied.

"It kinda feels like we didn't need so many people here," said Knuckles. "I feel like the trial should have been longer than it actually was."

"As did I," Dingo threw in. "But, with all the evidence stacked against you and the judge being as smart as he is, as well as a good friend of ours, it's easy to understand why he'd want it cut short."

"That and the other cases that he's got lined up for the rest of the day," said Avery, turning to the Aussie. "It was good seeing you, my friend."

"Likewise," Dingo smiled, shaking the bear's hand. "Let's hope that the next time we meet, it's not under circumstances such as this."

"Yeah, let's hope so," Avery chuckled.

The two broke from their handshake, and headed back to their respective cars. They got inside them, with the convoys both ready to go back to their respective departments. Soon, they'd reached their destinations.

"Ah... feels kind of good to be back home," Sonic said, getting out of the car.

"The home we've barely had for half a week and are going to have to leave by tomorrow morning?" Tails asked.

"Eh, we get a new home out of it," Sonic shrugged. "And a cooler sounding job. Bounty hunting... just sounds wicked awesome!"

"Before you do that," Avery said, "I need a quick word with you."

"Do we have to head up to the meeting room for this?" Sonic asked.

"No. Just the front lobby is fine," Avery said, walking ahead.

The others followed, soon entering the Green Hill Police Department and finding themselves in the front lobby. Around them, several other officers spilled out, immediately rushing to their places of work. One of them was Vector, who was stopped on his way to the armoury by Avery's voice.

"Vector!" the commander called.

"Yes, sir?" Vector replied, Espio and Charmy stopping with him.

"As you're aware, Sonic and the others here have implants, yes?"

"It's pretty well documented," Vector replied. "Why?"

"Well, I was wondering if you'd help them out starting on Monday by helping to set up a training course for their new place," Avery said. "Since we still need to get that place ready, perhaps you'd like to join us and oversee the design of the course?"

"Is Antoine helping as well?" asked Vector. "Because he did a pretty good job with the courses at Green Hill Academy."

"It will be a group effort," Avery said. "But we'll need to make this one a lot different from that one, as well as the one we have here at the department."

"Will our normal one not do?" asked Vector.

"It would, but as advanced as our own courses are, they're not nearly ready for those with implants."

The crocodile nodded. "I remember. I damn near blasted the walls open when I first screamed and discovered it."

"Why'd you find out that way?" asked Sonic.

"I was mostly just frustrated at the fact that I had no clue what it was," Vector said. "The screams were mostly of rage... until the floors started vibrating and computer geeks and analysts were flung across the room. Luckily, none of them were killed."

"One did suffer a broken foot, though," Avery pointed out. "We're lucky that he didn't sue."

"Ah, can't do without me, huh?" Vector asked.

"Sure, let's go with that," Avery chuckled.

"Come on..." the crocodile pouted.

"Hey, just because I'm the commander doesn't mean that I can't crack a joke here and there," the bear smiled, turning to Sonic and the others. "Anyway, get back to your rooms. As soon as we have anything important, we'll tell you."

With that, Avery walked off, and Vector went over to the armoury, rejoining Espio and Charmy there. Sonic sighed and shrugged, turning with his friends to go over to the elevator, and they went up to the third floor.

"So, I figure that we've got some time to kill while we wait," Sonic said. "And lunch is soon."

"Got any ideas?" asked Tails.

"I've got some Cards Against Mobius, if you're interested," Knuckles said. "I actually got some of the new packs in the mail this morning, so that's one bright thing."

"I'm up for it," Shadow said.

"Ah, yes... I almost forgot about the king of the game," Knuckles grinned. "For a dude who doesn't talk much, you're pretty good at being offensive and disgusting when you want to be."

"Eh, only when it comes to the game," the black and red hedgehog shrugged. "I guess that you could blame it on Rouge."

"You just like blaming Rouge for stuff," Sonic smirked. "Come on. Let's have a few laughs out of this day. Lord knows that we could all use it right now."

 **Meanwhile, back at Westopolis...**

Nack sat in the back seat of his car as the humans drove him, and the weasel looked out of his window, smirking as he took in the sights of the city that he once ruled over, and hoped to do so again.

"We're close to the centre," said the human driving.

"Good," Nack said, not looking away from the window. "Bring us around."

The human nodded, turning the corner as the other human spoke. "You've been quiet the whole way here," he said.

Nack smiled. "Are you worried?"

"I'd just like to know who and what we're dealing with," said the human. "There's got to be more to this than just pushing this stuff around Westopolis."

"I told you before," Nack said, "they're old friends. They owe me a debt."

"They must be smart enough to know that they may just owe you another one if they say yes," said the human driving.

"Only if they mess anything up," Nack said. "They'll pay back the first debt by saying yes; they won't have to worry about the second debt if they do their jobs correctly."

The humans looked at each other and shrugged, soon pulling around to the centre of Westopolis, pulling up around an old looking park. There was a rusted gate surrounding it, but the not rusted parts indicated that the gate was a vibrant red colour once. Most of what was inside the park was rusted as well, from the benches to the slide to the swing set.

"Remember, you two stay in the car until I walk over to get the cases," Nack said.

"Understood," said one of the humans.

The car pulled over, and Nack stepped out of the back of it, smiling as he saw that his three friends had arrived. He walked over to them near the centre of the park, nodding and meeting up with them.

He looked over them. First of all was a female tiger, with dark grey fur that had white stripes, and a pair of striking dark blue eyes. She wore a lovely purple dress with a split revealing one of her legs, a pair of black high-heels covering her feet. The dress was held up by a pair of straps, and she had a beauty mark on her right cheek.

"Lara," Nack smiled. "So good to see you."

"Likewise," Lara replied, walking over to shake the weasel's hand.

Nack looked over to the next friend, who was a rather tall and muscular bull with black fur and a pair of dark orange eyes, and a piercing through his septum. He wore a dark brown camouflage tank top, black baggy jeans, and light brown army boots. Despite having hooves, that didn't stop the bull from walking over and shaking Nack's hand.

"Good to see you again, Manuel," Nack said.

"Likewise, compadre," the bull replied, a slight Latino lilt to his tone of voice.

"How are the girls?"

"Eh, they're fine," Manuel replied.

Nack smiled, looking over to the third person, who was a scrawny ball python snake with dark brown scales, and a pattern of red and orange going over his body, along with blood red eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with blue jeans and black sneaker. Despite being a snake, he did have limbs, and he was reaching a slithery hand to Nack.

"Ah, Nack," the snake smiled, having a Southern tinge to his voice. "Never thought I'd see you again."

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Beau," said Nack. "I will say, for a Southern gentleman, you aren't dressed like one."

The snake shrugged. "I woke up a little bit late today."

"I can only wonder why," Nack said.

"Can you blame me?" Beau asked. "It's Westopolis. If you don't wake up with some form of a hangover at least once a day, you don't belong here."

"You know how valuable my time is," Nack replied, becoming a little more serious. "If I wanted you half-dead on arrival, I would have sent one of my men."

"It's a good thing that I'm not half-dead then," Beau said. "Anyway, what's this all about?"

"I told you over the phone," Nack replied.

"You told us that you had deals to make," Lara said. "You didn't tell is what those deals are."

Nack grinned. "Well, we may as well start with you," he said, turning to face the grey tiger. "How are things going for your business?"

"Very well, thank you," Lara replied with a grin. "Thanks to the money you let me borrow, I've been able to buy the best girls for my hotel."

"Hotel... right..." Manuel said under his breath.

"Says the glorified bouncer," replied Lara.

"Now, now," Nack said. "No infighting while we're making a deal. Otherwise, it all just goes to shit, and nobody wants that."

"Sorry," Manuel replied, turning to Lara. "Please continue, ma'am."

The tiger nodded. "As I was saying, my girls and my hotel have been doing better than ever. We've made several authority figures in Westopolis very happy people."

"To be honest," Beau said, "the higher-ups in this city aren't exactly the most reliable people. It's a good thing that your girls keep them that way."

"Only the best to bring out the worst in people," Lara smirked.

Nack chuckled. "Ah, lovely Lana... as ruthless as ever."

"How else could I be?" she winked.

The purple weasel smiled and looked over to Manuel. "How about you?"

"Aye... things could be better, homes," said the bull. "As good as my girls are doing, they're not doing as well as they could."

"What about things not in relation to your daughters?" asked Nack.

"Things were going great until a week ago," Manuel replied. "One of the new guys that I hired tried running off with a shipment of guns. He didn't get very far, but that's only because a new gang got in the way and killed the newbie, stealing the guns for themselves."

"Damn," Beau said. "If I remember correctly, you had some police grade stuff not long ago, right?"

The bull nodded. "Yeah. But I need to get a new shipment in, which I can't do since I'm low on cash, and I can't get cash without a new shipment... it's a vicious paradox."

"Just calm down, my friend," Nack said. "All will be well in due time. What about your fighting?"

Manuel grinned. "That's going a lot better. I'm not earning as much cash from it, but a lot of my guys are really raking it in."

"I can understand why," said Lara. "They, like you, have mouths to feed."

"Yeah..." the bull replied, hanging his head a bit. "It's a shame that some of my guys don't make it out."

"That's the difference between the big bouts that we watch on TV and the fighting rings of Westopolis; we do it better because there's more risk," Beau said.

Manuel chuckled a bit. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Nack smiled and turned to Beau. "And how about you? How's the drug dealing going?"

"About as well as it could for any dealer worth his salt in Westopolis," the snake replied. "Which is to say, somewhat lucrative, but I feel like I barely make anything from it. Sort of like Manuel, only I don't give any of my associates cuts and they usually die from overdoses."

"And what have you been selling?" Nack asked.

"The usual," Beau replied. "Coke, speed, crack, weed, pills, meth... even aerosol cans if that's someone's kinda high."

"And people aren't going for that in this place?" said Lara.

"Quite the opposite, actually," the snake said. "Way too many people are going for my stuff. Over the past few days, most of my product has felt... lighter. Like, say I have four bags of coke, and none of them get taken away, but someone takes some coke from me. It's just little nips, so it's nothing serious, but if it keeps going... well, I may not have much left going for me."

Manuel sighed, turning to see Nack's car. "Who are those two?"

"Those are a couple of friends that I made in Green Hill," said Nack.

"Are those... humans?" the bull piled on, squinting to see more clearly.

"Indeed they are. Enhanced humans, and humans that I trust," Nack said. "They haven't let me down so far."

"You know, I've been meaning to ask," said Lara. "What can you do to help us out?"

"Do you even need help?" Manuel asked the tiger. "You seem to be much more well off than the rest of us."

"A girl's got to take what she can, especially in this city," Lara shrugged.

"You truly are the matriarch of Westopolis," Beau chuckled.

"Thank you. I try."

"Have things really been going that well for you?" Nack asked.

"Well... truth be told, it could be better," Lara said. "Some of my girls could use better healthcare. I want men to feel pleasure that won't make them itch the next morning."

Nack smiled, then simply turned to walk over to his car. The humans inside the car got out also, and all three went to the trunk, opening it. Each of them took a briefcase each before closing the door of the trunk and walking back to the park.

"What's in those cases?" asked Manuel.

"Money," said Nack. "One case for each of you." He went over to Lara first. "You claim that your girls are the best? Then use this money to get better girls."

"Are there any conditions?" Lara asked.

"Only that you run the south side of Westopolis," replied Nack, opening the case to show the money inside. "I want you to push as much pussy around there as you can."

The tiger smiled, extending her hand. "Sounds good to me."

Nack smiled, shaking Lara's hand before being handed the next case by one of the humans with him. He walked over to Manuel, keeping the case closed as he was hesitant on if the bull would take the deal.

"You need some more guns, right?" asked Nack. "And not just that, but police issue?"

"Military, if it's possible," Manuel shrugged.

Nack opened the case. "Is this enough for military hardware?"

"Aye... more than enough," Manuel smiled, shaking Nack's hand. "Where do you want me to run this stuff?"

"It'd be best to take this to the east side," said Nack. "Can you handle that?"

Manuel grinned. "That's pretty much my turf anyways. I can handle it, hombre."

The purple weasel grinned at another deal made before getting the third and final case, walking over to Beau and opening the case. Before he could talk, however, the snake had a few words of his own to say.

"What do you expect me to do with this?" Beau asked. "Some of my stuff is getting stolen, but it's just little sips."

"It's not what you have that's getting stolen," said Nack. "It's what you don't have."

"Do you mean what I think that you mean?" Beau replied. "Do they even have Fokus in Westopolis?"

"They have just about every other drug out here," said Lara. "It stands to reason that there could be Fokus."

"Even if I could get my hands on it," said the snake, "it'd be a limited audience. Doesn't that stuff only affect people with implants?"

"You have heard wrong," said Nack, smiling. "It just has a better effect on those with implants. It can still influence humans heavily, but the effects wear off quicker than they would on somebody with an implant."

Beau smiled. "You know, there's been rumours going around that some people have been trying to make their own implants. Not as good as the ones in the better governed cities, but good enough."

"Then your chances might just improve," Nack smiled. "So... do we have a deal?"

Beau nodded. "Deal."

Nack smiled, handing the case over to the snake, who closed it and put it beside him as he shook hands with the weasel. After the handshake broke, Nack nodded at the snake before speaking.

"You're taking over the west side," Nack replied.

Beau nodded. "Understood."

"What do you get out of this?" asked Manuel. "Are you taking the north?"

"I am indeed," said Nack. "But that's not all that I get out of it."

"You want a cut?" Lara questioned.

"Was that not obvious from the start?" Nack smiled. "I do, but it's fair on all of us: twenty five percent each."

"And do we get anything else out of it?" asked Beau.

"Protection," said Nack. "The cuts won't take place right off the bat. Monday is when the cycle will start. I want you to take the money that I've given you and use what you can to buy protection."

"Like those guys?" asked Manuel, gesturing to the two humans.

"Yes, like these guys," the purple weasel replied. "Any further questions?" After a few moments of silence, Nack smiled, reaching into his pocket to pull out a piece of paper. "This is an address for some mercenaries that live in Westopolis."

"What makes these guys so different to any other killer in these parts?" asked Beau.

"These ones know what they're doing. You think that I wouldn't free them in the prison break if I didn't know about them?" Nack smiled. "Seek them out. If you have to, use some money. You shouldn't have to, but it might help."

"Let me guess," Lara said, rolling her eyes. "They owe you a debt?"

"They still do," said Nack. "But I know that they can pay it back to me." He paused. "Any further questions?"

Manuel shrugged. "I've got nothing. It all sounds good to me."

"Same here," said Lara. "It'd be nice to have my girls looked after better."

"Maybe your girls could do some looking after for the bodyguards?" Nack suggested. "If money doesn't work, pretty might."

"Let's hope so," Lara shrugged.

Beau grinned. "I've got no problem with it either, man."

Nack smiled. "Good. I hope that you put the money to the proper use, because come Monday, I expect you to have good places to run your stuff."

"With the cash you've given us, we might just be able to pull it off," said Manuel. "Pleasure doing business with you, amigo."

"Likewise," Nack replied, nodding and turning around with a wave. "Take care. And try not to get in trouble, okay?"

"No promises," said Lara. "It is Westopolis, after all."

The purple weasel smiled, walking back to his car and getting into the back seat. Soon, the car started driving off, and Nack looked out his window to see the three Mobians that he just made deals with get back into their own vehicles before also taking off.

"Ah... it was fun to see them again," said Nack.

"Do you really have that much faith in them?" asked one of the humans.

"Of course I do," said Nack. "They know how powerful I can be. They know what I can do to them if anything goes wrong. Of course, they'd have to be directly responsible. I'm not going after one of them just because some prick working for them suddenly grew a pair."

"Let's hope that they keep up the work on their end," said the other human.

"I know they will," said Nack. "Anyway, let's hurry. It's almost time for lunch, and I'm rather hungry."

With that, the drive continued, and Nack smiled to himself as he relaxed in the back seat of the car. He couldn't wipe the grin off of his face that his plans were now set in motion, and couldn't wait for what would happen on Monday when things really started to pick up.

'All is set in motion, and there won't be any cops to stop me,' Nack thought to himself. 'And after Westopolis is under our control, we really should branch out more. So many places to take over, so much time...'

* * *

 **And that's another chapter! Finally! I know that this one took a bit longer, but in my defence, I did say that it'd take a bit longer. I wasn't expecting it to be this long, though. Anyway, what'd you think of it? Do you like the original characters I brought in? It would just get boring to have not given them names. I might do it for others whom I neglected to give names to. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I'll see you all next time for another one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	12. Vacillation

"All right," said Knuckles, pulling a black card from the pile. "Ah, one of my favourite question cards. I drink to forget blank."

Sonic rifled through his white answer cards, placing it face down on the table, waiting as his friends did the same. Knuckles picked the cards up and shuffled them before clearing his throat and reading.

"I drink to forget the disappearance of those kids on the train," Knuckles said through a chuckle. "Kinda fucked up, but I liked it." He cleared his throat once more. "I drink to forget alcoholism. A delightfully paradoxical answer there," he smiled, before reading the last one. "I... oh, god, this is a solid win. I drink to forget that one time with the sheep in Australia." He laughed and placed the white cards into the miniature graveyard that he and his friends made. "All right, my winner is the sheep in Australia. Who had that one?"

"Right here," Tails said, raising his hand. "I wrote that one in too."

"I thought my alcoholism would win there," Shadow shrugged.

Knuckles then laughed. "That means that Sonic played the most fucked up answer."

"I was hoping that you'd pick it thinking that it was Shadow, only to be pleasantly surprised when it was me," the blue hedgehog shrugged with a smile. "The more screwed up part is that I wrote that in."

"Good thing that we can erase it," said Tails, picking up his and Sonic's answer cards from the graveyard. "Erase." Within moments, the answers on the cards were vanished, leaving a clean slate. "You may continue, Knuckles," Tails said.

Knuckles nodded. "Fair enough. So, what's everyone's score at?" he asked, counting through his cards. "I've got... four."

"Five," Sonic said. "I'm still close."

"And I just hit five with that last one," said Tails.

"Four, same as Knuckles," Shadow added. "Aw, fuck. It's first to six, isn't it?"

Knuckles nodded. "And, due to the order of the table, you're next up," the red echidna said.

"I might end up picking the winner here," Shadow shook his head and picked out one of the black question cards from the deck. "The school trip was completely ruined by blank."

The other three shuffled through their hands, trying to pick the right card. If Knuckles got this, he could win the next round also. But if either Sonic or Tails got it, they would win. They were both locked in to win the game.

Soon, their cards were placed face down, and Shadow picked them up and shuffled them briefly before beginning speaking. "The school trip was completely ruined by some douche-bag playing an acoustic guitar." He grinned. "I can see how that'd ruin the trip. The school trip was completely ruined by dwarf tossing." He snorted and laughed helplessly at that one. "Sorry. I just love that card so much. And finally, the school trip was completely ruined by geese. It's fairly obvious that dwarf tossing wins, which is a sentence that I never thought that I'd ever say in my life."

"Yes!" Tails said, raising his arms in victory.

"And the young gun takes the win!" said Sonic.

"Very well played," Knuckles said. "That wasn't even pandering, either. The cards just worked."

"Eh, maybe slight pandering," said Shadow. "That card that he put down is a favourite of mine."

"True," Sonic replied. "All right, let's pack this up and go and grab some lunch. This game has been fun, but I'm getting bored shitless without any missions."

"Our current mission is to wait, and that's what we're doing," said Tails. "Something will pop up."

Sonic nodded. "I know."

With that, they all grouped together to pack away their card game. After doing so, they checked their uniforms to make sure that they had what they all needed before leaving Knuckles' room and heading downstairs.

They took the stairs as the elevator was in use, and made it to the bottom floor. Before they continued, Tails went over to the front desk and began speaking to the two girls, his friends soon stopping to join him.

"Hey," Tails said. "So, um... we're going to the Jade Mountain. Would either of you guys like us to bring something back for you?"

"Actually," Mina said, grabbing two cans of soda, "me and Cosmo already got lunch earlier."

"Oh..." Tails nodded. "Well, maybe some other time... oh, wait... that won't ever happen..."

"Maybe tomorrow?" Cosmo suggested. "I mean, you might be fired by then, but you have the day off."

"That's right," Mina added. "And you're clearing your desks anyway, so."

"Yes, but that's in the morning," Knuckles pointed out.

"And after that, we're pretty much jobless until Monday," Sonic reminded.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that part," the red echidna said.

"So... tomorrow?" Tails said.

Cosmo nodded. "Tomorrow."

"It's a date," the yellow fox blushed. His eyes then widened as he realised what he said. "I mean, not a date date. Not that I wouldn't want to date you... oh, crap..."

Sonic smiled and put an arm around his friend. "Excuse us," he addressed to Cosmo and Mina. He then walked away with his friend. "Dude, is everything okay?"

"N-No..." Tails replied. "I don't know how to talk to girls... especially really pretty ones like Cosmo..."

"Well, she seems to find your charm endearing so far," Sonic smirked, partially joking. "Seriously, there's nothing to worry about. I'd wager that she likes you. But then I'd remove the wager part, as I don't want either of us to lose money, because that's just how good a friend I am."

"Really?" Tails asked.

"Really," Sonic replied. "And plus, you don't need to be nervous. You already asked them about Jade Mountain, and they said yes."

Tails chuckled a bit in relief. "Thanks Sonic. That does raise a question, though..."

"What'd that be?" asked Sonic.

"Well, since tomorrow's a day off, do I bring them with me to Jade Mountain or just get some stuff from the drive through and bring it back here?"

"I'd say bring it back here," Sonic replied. "It'd probably be the safer option."

Tails nodded. "Okay." He then turned and walked back over to the girls. "Sorry about that earlier."

"It's fine," said Cosmo, smiling. "Just don't forget about our date tomorrow, okay?" She punctuated her inquiry with a wink, making Tails blush more so than he already was.

"I won't," he replied.

"I look forward to it," Cosmo smiled.

Tails simply nodded and turned to leave, catching up with his friends who had left him behind to get to the car. He huffed out a curse under his breath and rushed out to join them, hopping into the back seat, since he had no choice.

"No shotgun seat for you this time," Sonic smirked.

"Note to self," Knuckles stated. "Tails' biggest weakness is cute girls."

"Yeah, yeah," Tails groaned. "Yuck it up."

Sonic shook his head as he began driving. "Come on. Let's get to Jade Mountain for our lunch."

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Shadow, who was in the shotgun seat, spoke up. "So, I noticed you at court earlier today."

"You noticed me?" Sonic scoffed. "What is this, a romance anime?"

"I saw how worried you looked at the end," Shadow replied, ignoring Sonic's joke. "You looked like you were shaking and sweating bullets. I can't imagine what was going through your head."

"It wasn't good stuff, I'll tell you that much," the blue hedgehog said. "I guess that I just didn't want to lose the job so soon after getting it, you know? All of that hard work at the academy, our first mission, the accident... if the judge had just called it off altogether, I don't know how I'd feel about it."

"What would you have done if we didn't become bounty hunters?" asked Tails.

"We're technically not bounty hunters," said Sonic. "I think that we're more like a special group, you know?"

"My mum always called me special when I was a kid," Knuckles said. "I thought that it was for different reasons."

"I believe that the judge said freelance agents," said Tails. "We get our own building and everything."

"I hope that includes bedrooms," said Knuckles. "It'd be nice to bring Shade around."

"That reminds me," said Sonic, "how's she taking this?"

"She doesn't know about the freelance thing yet, since I haven't gotten the chance to tell her," the red echidna replied. "But she didn't seem too happy about us losing our jobs. She knows that there was nothing that we could do about it, either."

"Doesn't her kickboxing class end soon?" Tails asked.

"No, it starts soon," said Knuckles, pulling out his phone and checking the time. "They're not allowed their phones in the gym, but maybe I could give her a quick call..."

He dialled her number, waiting patiently. Soon, he got an answer. "Hey, handsome!" she said over the phone. "What's up? How was the court?"

"Well, it's clear that we don't have our jobs any more," Knuckles said sadly.

Shade sighed. "I know... but at least I get to have you around at home a lot more."

"Oh god, I knew it," Knuckles mock gasped. "I'm a kept echidna."

Shade chuckled. "So, now you're jobless?"

"Surprisingly, no," Knuckles said. "The judge has made us freelance agents that will work for any department who needs us. It gives us more freedom that way, except for the fact that we can't run our own stuff."

"So, does that make you bounty hunters?" asked Shade.

"In a sense, yes," Knuckles replied. "I think that phrase only works in certain situations, though."

"Well, in any case, congratulations!" the orange echidna said happily.

"You're okay with this?" the red echidna replied.

"Did you have a choice to back out?"

"Not really, no."

"Then I'm okay with it!" She giggled. "I'm joking. I would have been fine either way. Seriously, it's great that you still have a job now."

"Thanks," Knuckles grinned. "Well, I'd better end the call. We're close to our lunch area now, and I don't want to talk over the phone with a gullet full of sweet and sour ribs."

"By lunch area, do you mean Jade Mountain?" Shade asked.

"The very same," Knuckles replied. "Want me to save something for you?"

"Eh, maybe for dinner later," said Shade. "I'd better go myself, actually. My class is starting soon."

"Fair enough," Knuckles said. "I love you."

"I love you too," Shade replied, hanging up.

"Awww," Sonic, Shadow, and Tails replied in unison.

"Now I know how Tails feels," said Knuckles.

"Come on, I'm way cuter than you," the yellow fox replied as Sonic looked for a parking space.

"Who needs cute when you've got the cool factor?" Sonic replied, looking in the mirror to see Shadow. "Or the mystery?"

"I swear, Shadow doesn't pretend to be aloof," said Tails as they left the car, Sonic having found a space to park. "He just is."

"Maybe if he'd talk more, we'd know more about him," Knuckles replied.

"Maybe we could try talking to his girlfriend to get more out of him?" the blue hedgehog added on, turning to Shadow.

"No comment," the black and red hedgehog replied.

They all then entered the restaurant itself, with Shadow, Sonic, and Tails finding a table as Knuckles walked up to the counter. The red echidna waited patiently in line for the person before him to place their order before the owner walked over with a smile.

"Good to see you again," he said.

"You too, Mr. Fong," replied Knuckles.

"You want the usual?" asked Fong.

"Please," replied Knuckles. "But a little less than normal. It's a late lunch day."

Fong nodded, turning around to call out the order before turning back to Knuckles. "I heard that you had a court date today."

The red echidna sighed. "Not my favourite kind of date, I'll tell you that much."

"What happened?" the owner asked.

"Me and the others got caught out for running an operation in a different city. We forgot that it was against the rules to do that, and when we got found out for it, we were made to go to court."

"You guys went to hunt down Nack and his men, right?" Fong asked. Knuckles nodded. "Well, why didn't they understand that."

"They did," Knuckles said. "But they didn't care. Rules are rules, and we broke them. And now, because of that, we're not policemen any more."

"That's bullshit," said Fong, clearing his throat. "Sorry. I forgot I was walking to a police officer. With all due respect, that's bullshit."

"Former officer," Knuckles pointed out with a grin. "But it's not all bad, shockingly."

"How so?"

"For one thing, we get a day off tomorrow," Knuckles shrugged. "For another, we kind of get a new job by Monday."

"Doing what?" asked another person behind the counter, intrigued by the tale.

"We're going to be part of a special division, which means that we can only work when we're needed the most," Knuckles said. "We can't run stuff on our own, but that's the only restriction that I'm aware of right now."

"Let's hope that there's not much else," said Fong, turning as he heard another employee walk over, presenting the food. "Ah, right on time."

Mr. Fong went about sorting the food out, placing the ribs in their containers, and placing the fries in brown paper bags. He also got some soda drinks in bottles for the group, and placed all the food on a tray.

Knuckles quickly realised that he'd forgotten to pay, so he reached into his wallet to pull out the sufficient amount of money and handed it to the owner before smiling and taking the tray with him to his friends.

"Thanks," the echidna said over his shoulder, walking over to sit down with his friends.

"Ooh, awesome," Tails said, noticing the tray. "They've got some salt packets."

"And there's lemons with the ribs too," Sonic added, opening his container of ribs. "Let's see what spritzing some of this onto the ribs changes."

He picked up the lemon and held it over his ribs, squeezing the fruit lightly and watching as the juice dribbled down onto his food. He then picked up one of the ribs and chewed off some of the meet from it, waiting a while for the taste to settle in.

"Mmm..." Sonic said with a nod. "Tastes pretty damn good."

"The lemons are new," said Tails, grabbing his own fruit to spray over his ribs.

Knuckles nodded, calling over to the manager. "How long have you had these lemons for?"

"They're very recent," one of the employees replied. "Mr. Fong recommended them after trying a few recipes himself. Apparently, lemon just goes well with the ribs."

"I can attest to that," Sonic replied, eating another rib.

Shadow chuckled, grabbing his salt packet and spilling the contents onto his fries. "So, besides Tails and Sonic going on their dates, does anyone have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Not really," Knuckles replied. "Shade has Sundays off as a rule, so she won't have to go to her job or her martial arts class."

"And short of my date with Amy, I've got nothing going for me," said Sonic, turning to Tails. "What about you?"

The yellow fox shook his head. "No plans besides getting lunch for Cosmo." He then turned to Shadow. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, there's a new bar that opened not far from here," Shadow said. "I was wondering if you guys wanted to come with?"

"I don't know..." Knuckles replied. "I mean, we got really drunk at our graduation party."

"We didn't all get badly drunk," said Tails.

"You didn't," said Sonic. "You were the designated driver."

"I didn't get drunk at all," said Tails. "I'm still underage, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic said.

"And yet, I'm the one who drove each of you to your homes and made sure that all was okay," Tails said. "I even managed to give you good tablets for the morning to help with your hangovers."

"Didn't work on me..." Knuckles mumbled.

"That's because you got more drunk than the rest of us," the yellow fox said. "In fact, it took you five tries to hand me your keys because you couldn't figure out which of my five hands was the right one."

Sonic laughed. "Really? That's super drunk, man. I wonder how many tails he had when you saw him through your beer goggles?"

"I remember that they looked much fluffier," replied Knuckles, grinning. "Drunk or not, the twins still stand out."

"Thanks, I've been working on them," Tails deadpanned.

"Ahem..." Shadow said, clearing his throat. "So, are you boys coming out to the bar tonight or what?"

"Eh, may as well," Sonic replied. "But no alcohol, okay? Remember, we've got to clear out our desks tomorrow morning."

"What's the name of the bar?" Tails asked.

"Midnight Oil," said Shadow.

"Huh. Cool name," replied the yellow fox.

"So, you guys are in?" the black and red hedgehog said.

"Yes," Sonic said. "Just no booze. We've got to keep it clean now, okay?"

"Well, we are still technically on the force," said Knuckles. "I slept in by accident on my first day. I can't imagine that drinking on the job is any better."

"And mixing the two is never a good thing," Sonic added. "I might have gotten up on time, but Tails' tablets themselves didn't help with the hangover. Luckily, coffee is a thing that exists."

Shadow shrugged. "Just the tablets for me."

"You didn't feel the affects that much?" asked Tails.

"That's because I didn't drink as much as these other two idiots," Shadow replied. "I had a slight hangover, but it wasn't that bad."

"Either that, or you're just better at holding your liquor," Sonic replied.

"Eh, maybe," said Shadow, shrugging.

Tails smiled. "Well, at least I'm saved from that job tonight."

"Oh, that does remind me," Knuckles said, "I got a text this morning. My car's all repaired, so I just have to go and get it back."

"Sweet," Sonic said. "It does suck that you couldn't get it back earlier."

"Eh, the accident the other night was pretty horrendous," Knuckles shrugged. "It only makes sense for my car to bear some of the pain."

"I'm pretty sure that cars don't feel pain," Tails said. "I'm sure that we all did after the crash, though."

The others chuckled and continued eating their food, soon finishing it and discarding it into the trash before thanking Mr. Fong and taking their leave. They left out the front door and headed for their car, with Knuckles driving this time.

As soon as the others got in, the radio started sounding off, so Sonic answered it. "What's up?"

"It's Antoine," came the French coyote's distinctive accent. "I need your guys' help."

"Deciding on what kind of ring to get for Bunnie?" asked Knuckles as they pulled out of the parking lot.

"She's right here, and can hear you..." Antoine spoke.

"But if y'all know something, then keep it to yourselves!" Bunnie's voice joined, coming out in a loud whisper.

"Where are you guys?" asked Sonic. "Why are you keeping so quiet?"

"We're at the Emerald Gem, but we're hiding behind cover," said Antoine.

"Why would that place be attacked again so soon?" Sonic asked.

"It's not here," said Antoine. "It's one of the houses across the street. They kidnapped some of the employees and are holding them hostage, and are starting to make demands."

"Is anybody hurt?" asked Knuckles.

"No, all is fine. But these kidnappers are making some pretty big demands. They know that we're cops."

"All right, we'll be there. Just hang tight, okay?" said Sonic. "Over and out."

"That doesn't sound good," Knuckles said, speeding up his driving.

"Wait... is this going to be okay?" asked Tails.

"How do you mean?" asked Shadow.

"Wouldn't running an operation be a bad thing to do right now?"

"Well, since Bunnie and Antoine are out there themselves, no," said Sonic. "They're the ones that are leading us. You've got to remember, they came across the crime in the first place."

"True," Tails said. "Also, man, Emerald Gem really needs to ramp up their security system."

"I don't think that it's the system that's the problem," said Shadow. "It's the fact that there's no security guards. You'd think that with them being a jewellery store that they could afford some real muscle around there."

The yellow fox nodded. "Plus, if need be, I could always hook them up with some new electronic enhancements. Couldn't hurt."

"Smart thinking," said Sonic.

"Also, we need to be careful," Shadow added. "If those kidnappers are just across the street, they might see us coming."

"Fuck..." Sonic said. "Today is just a really bad day to be wearing this uniform."

 **At the Emerald Gem...**

"All right," said Antoine, turning to those behind him that were left in the shop. "Everyone just try to stay calm, and stay undercover, okay?"

"Are you going to go after those killers?" asked an employee.

"First of all, none of them are dead," said Bunnie. "Secondly, we will! We just need more hands on deck to help. And I highly doubt that any of y'all have a gun hidden under your desks, now do ya?"

Antoine chuckled. "I did like Knuckles' question about if I was buying a ring for you."

"Yeah. Situational comedy can sneak up on ya when you least expect it," said Bunnie. "But we were just driving around because it's been a while since we were out in the field. It's not our fault that all of this started happening."

"Regardless, we shall be the ones to end it, my love."

"Aw," Bunnie blushed. "You're really cute when you're chivalrous and romantic. Kinda like a knight."

Antoine gave a brief bow before speaking. "So, what do you make of the court hearing for Sonic and the others?"

"It sucks that there was nothing more that anybody could do," Bunnie shrugged. "But maybe it could be a blessing in disguise, what with them getting their own place to work and all."

"They still have rules to follow," said Antoine. "They were let off easy. If they do anything like that again, then their careers could be over for good."

"Now y'all are just sounding harsh," the robotic rabbit scolded. "They didn't know about the rule of not being able to do missions outside of your own jurisdiction. It wasn't their fault."

"I don't mean to," Antoine said. "And that's true. But, accident or not, they need to be careful. I don't want to see any of them go to waste so early on."

"Now you're starting to sound like Avery," Bunnie giggled.

The coyote smiled, but before he could reply, a voice spoke from across the street via a megaphone. "Hey, cops! We know that you can hear us!"

"What do you want?" Antoine asked, having no choice but to yell.

"Our demand is the same! Give is all of the cash and jewels that you have, and we let the hostages go! If you refuse, we'll kill the ones we have!"

Bunnie shook her head. "We have to keep stalling until Sonic and the others get here," she said quietly to Antoine.

The coyote nodded before one of his ears flickered, and he grinned a bit. "I have a plan," he said to Bunnie, kneeling up. "All right! Let's meet in the middle of the street to make the trade, okay? It's a lot fairer that way, and there's no dirty tricks involved."

The lead kidnapper nodded. "All right! Grab the cash and jewels, and bring them out! Then we'll bring the hostages out, got it?"

"Fair enough!" Antoine called, standing up and turning around.

"You're crazy if you think that I'm going to let you take anything out to them!" said one of the employees.

"Look, miss, you'll just have to trust me," Antoine replied. "We have a plan. It's just going to take a little while to get here."

Bunnie then sighed. "We're sorry that we're throwing this stuff out there, but we kind of have to for this to work, okay?"

The employee that complained nodded. "Fine..."

Bunnie sighed, herself and Antoine following the employee to the cash register. He grabbed a bag from a drawer nearby and started to fill it up with cash and jewellery from a case that he'd opened under the register.

Once he'd gotten enough, he spoke. "Will this do?"

"It's not all of it, but we can't let them know that," said Antoine.

"What about the jewels?" Bunnie added. "Would they be a good price if the bad guys got away with them?"

"Reasonably so," said the employee. "But they don't need to know that."

Antoine smiled, turning to see a car coming around the corner. "There's our plan..."

With that, he led Bunnie and the employee out of the shop and into the street, the employee holding the back full of money and jewellery. One of the kidnappers looked over the window, speaking through his megaphone.

"Is that all of it?" he asked.

"It's as much as we could carry," said Antoine. "But it should be enough."

"It looks like it's about enough for one hostage," the bad guy replied. "Maybe two. But not all of them."

"The jewels in this bag are very valuable!" the employee shouted. "The money that you could make from them is way more than the cash itself in the bag!"

The kidnapper laughed. "You'd better not be lying to me! There'd better be some good stuff in there!"

"Just trust us!" Bunnie said.

"Trust the cops, huh? Good one."

"Hey, we're the ones out here doing our part of the deal," said Antoine. "And you're in there, hiding and not holding up your end of the bargain."

"All right, we'll come down," said the kidnapper.

As he made his way, Antoine's peripheral vision spotted Sonic and the others carefully driving closer before leaving their car, hiding behind a nearby alleyway that was out of view from the apartments. Surreptitiously, Antoine dropped his right hand and tucked his thumb in, leaving the remaining fingers as counting the number of bad guys as they left the apartment.

Each opponent had a hostage, and the leader spoke. "Any fair play, and we will kill these guys right on the spot."

"Understood," the employee said, stepping forward and holding the bad open. "Like I said, it's as much as I could carry."

The leader nodded. "All right. You hand yours over first."

Antoine nodded. "I'll do it."

"I don't care who does it, as long as it gets done," the kidnapper growled, growing frustrated.

Antoine carefully took the bag from the employee, walking over to the bad guys and handing the leader the bag of cash. As he did this, his peripheral vision picked up on Sonic and the other three moving closer.

"Now you," he said, speaking to Sonic while looking at the leader.

"All right," the leader replied, turning to the man closest to him. "Hand her over."

As soon as the hostage was handed over, Antoine smiled, reaching behind him carefully. "Anybody not trying to do anything bad had better get down and cover their eyes."

"What?"

Before anything else could happen, the coyote removed a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin, dropping it instantly to cause a flash to occur. The hostages flopped to the ground as quickly as they could, as did Antoine, Bunnie, and the employee.

Before the bad guys knew what happened, they were shaken from their daze to see Antoine, Bunnie, and the others pointing guns at them. The leader looked left and right for the hostages, but found that they had ran back into the Emerald Gem, the bag of jewels and money having been taken with them.

"Freeze," said Sonic. "Hands behind your head, knees on the ground."

"I'm the one running this operation," Antoine chuckled as the bad guys followed the blue hedgehog's order.

"It's my last day. May as well enjoy it," Sonic grinned.

"Your last day?" the lead kidnapper asked. "Wait... I heard about you! You're that dip-shit who got caught out in another city!"

"Well, this dip-shit is about to lock you up for what you've done," said Sonic. "And after tomorrow, we won't be constrained by such rules. In fact, if I wanted to right now, I could just straight up kill you."

Bunnie giggled, reaching for her shoulder mic. "Dispatch, this is Bunnie and Antoine. We've got four suspects here ready for transferal."

"Roger that," the voice on the other end replied. "Anything you need?"

"We can fit them all in our car," Bunnie shrugged. "We've got it covered."

"See you when you get here. Over and out."

"You know, we got this done with a remarkable amount of non-violence," Knuckles pointed out. "It just doesn't feel right unless we punch something."

"I think that's just you," said Sonic.

"True," replied Knuckles.

"On the bright side," Tails said, "it does make getting through our last day a bit easier."

"I still can't believe that we got beat by some rookie cops..." said the leading kidnapper. "They didn't even have the balls to hurt us."

"That's really not our decision any more," said Shadow. "But starting on Monday, there won't be a thing that any bad guy could do that'll stop us."

"True, it's not your decision," Bunnie said to Shadow, walking over and raising her hand to the leader. She slapped him hard across the face. "Luckily, we don't have to worry about that."

"You should have used your metal hand," Antoine grinned.

Bunnie shrugged. "Eh, missed opportunities. What can you do about them?"

The others laughed, and as they grabbed the kidnappers to put into their police cars, Shadow noticed something. "Does anybody know where Rouge is?"

"Oh, she's off sick today," said one of the employees.

"Well, as long as she's safe," Shadow shrugged.

"She actually asked you to go over to her house and check on her," the employee replied.

"I see," the black and red hedgehog nodded. "Thanks."

He then turned to head back to his police car, climbing into the back and joining Knuckles. As Sonic started the car, he looked in his overhead mirror to see Shadow gazing outside the window, looking out into the distance.

"You okay there, daydreamer?" Sonic smiled.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Shadow said. "Just found out that Rouge was sick, so that's why she wasn't at work today."

"Anything else?" Knuckles asked.

"She wants me to go over to her house and check up on her," Shadow replied.

"I think that she wants more than that," Tails muttered.

"I'd expect that from the other two, but not twins," Shadow smirked.

"Only I can get away with calling him twins," Sonic said.

"And even then, you skate on thin ice," Tails reminded.

The black and red hedgehog shook his head. "I know that this might be a bit sudden, but could I go and check up on Rouge before we head to the Midnight Oil tonight?"

"I don't see why not," Sonic said. "She does live alone, right?"

"Yeah," Shadow nodded. "It'd be hard for her to look after herself. She doesn't get sick much, so when she does, she's twice as worried."

"I'm sure that it might be a cold or something," said Tails. "She'll be fine."

"Couldn't hurt to check, though," Sonic noted. "We thought we were fine after that Star Light thing, and now look at us." He sighed. "Damn near jobless. We got lucky, if you ask me."

"Dude," Knuckles said, "you need to stop being so hesitant about this."

"I know..." Sonic nodded. "I'm just... I'm worried, okay?"

"Are you worried about telling your family?" Shadow asked.

"No," Sonic shook his head. "I know that they'll always support me, no matter what."

"What about telling Amy?" Tails asked. "Lord knows that you'll have to bring that up tomorrow."

"She'd understand," Sonic said. "I don't know what it is about her, but we just... click, you know? So, no, she's not the main worry at hand here. She'd understand."

"Is it just about the date tomorrow?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh, that's right," Tails said. "After what happened with Sally and all..."

"What happened with Sally wasn't the worst," Sonic replied. "We were just at different places together. She wanted a diamond ring, and I just wasn't ready for that."

"How's she doing, anyway?" Knuckles asked. "I haven't heard from her for a while."

"I wish that I knew," Sonic said. "I just hope that she's still okay, wherever she is."

"I still find it ironic that the dude who broke the all time speed record at the academy dumped his girlfriend because she was moving too fast," the red echidna chuckled.

"Don't make me turn this car around, because I will," Sonic threatened, jokingly.

"Look, whatever happens," Tails said, putting a hand on Sonic's shoulder, "we've got your back, okay?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah... you're right."

"So, what's the major worry?" the yellow fox asked. "You never did tell us."

Sonic shrugged. "I don't know. I guess that I'm just worried that I let you guys down, you know? I mean, I was the field leader, and it was me that led us to Star Light."

"You led us out there because you were doing the right thing," Knuckles said. "It's not that you thought that you were doing the right thing; you straight up were doing the right thing."

"What's the difference?" asked Sonic.

"If you were just thinking it at the time, then I doubt that any of us would have followed you there," Shadow said. "We're your friends, but we know when to follow you and when to not follow you."

"I sure hope that there isn't a day where you don't follow me," Sonic said. "At least, not without good reason..."

"If we think that you're being a dick, I'll punch you myself," Knuckles grinned.

"You sure do like punching stuff, don't you?" Sonic asked.

"It's what I'm known for," Knuckles shrugged.

"Who knows?" Tails asked. "Maybe one day, when Shade's good enough at kickboxing, you two could open your own gym or something."

"And what would I do?" Knuckles asked. "I'm not the best teacher around."

"Maybe you could make the coffee?" Sonic grinned.

"You do remember what I said earlier if any of us think that you're being a dick, right?" the red echidna replied, laughing.

"Not while I'm driving," Sonic said. "We won't get back to work otherwise."

"Will he be exempt from that rule by Monday?" Shadow asked.

"Nope," replied Tails, grinning.

"Can I at least have my date tomorrow?" Sonic chuckled. "Then you guys can kill me, okay?"

The others laughed, and they continued the drive back to the station. They soon make it back with little issue, thankful that the kidnappers were in Antoine and Bunnie's car rather than their own.

"So, any plans?" asked Tails.

"Not that I can think of," replied Sonic. "We just need a debriefing from Avery, then we'll go pick up Knuckles' car from the lot."

"Actually, you won't have to go up for the debriefing," said Antoine, wrestling with one of the kidnappers.

Knuckles and Shadow went over to help as Sonic replied. "Why's that?"

"Because... well, you're fired by tomorrow," Antoine shrugged. "There'd be no point. And besides, you weren't there all that long when we caught these ass-hats."

"Dude does have a point..." Knuckles nodded, holding one of the kidnappers as he struggled. "Stay still, please. This will be less painful for you if you don't move as much."

"What'll happen if I do?" the kidnapper replied.

The red echidna shrugged, letting go of the kidnapper. Immediately, the bad guy ran forward, but was soon stumbled and tripping as Sonic stuck out a foot to trip him up, causing him to fall flat on his face.

Tails shrugged and picked the bad guy up. "You were warned."

"Come on, that's police brutality and you fucking know it!" the kidnapper said.

"It was just a happy little accident," Sonic replied. "Like your conception."

"Ooh... hitting a bit close to home there, aren't you?" Tails said.

"Yeah, you're right," Sonic said. "His parents were probably really nice people. Imagine how disappointed they'd be now."

The yellow fox grinned, handing the kidnapper back over to Knuckles. "That's much better."

Sonic smirked as they walked into the station proper, the bad guys instantly being taken to the holding cells. Soon after, Knuckles and Shadow had returned to rejoin Sonic and Tails, whilst Antoine and Bunnie went upstairs to the meeting room.

"Off to the lot next?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah," replied Knuckles, walking up to the front desk. "Hey, quick question."

"Shoot," Mina replied.

"Do we need a special pass or anything to get to the impound lot?"

"Not if it's a personal vehicle," said Cosmo. "You don't have to pay to take it, and you don't have to show any ID to get it. The station's database already knows that it's yours."

"Speaking of the database," said a voice, "I have something to show you guys."

Sonic turned to see Rotor. "Ah, there you are! How have you been?"

The walrus chuckled. "Not too bad. But this isn't a laughing matter. Come with me."

"All right," the blue hedgehog replied, turning to Knuckles. "Looks like picking up your car will have to wait a little bit longer."

The red echidna shrugged. "Eh, it'll all be fine. I don't mind waiting."

The four then followed Rotor into the morgue. As with much of the rest of the building, there was a lot of high-tech design to it. There were plenty of computers for analysis of certain things, such as bullets, blunt weapons, bladed weapons, pieces of clothing, and even body parts.

"Ugh... what a nasty smell," Knuckles said, holding his nose.

"Wait until you see the cause of it," Rotor said, walking over to a table in the middle of the room. It was covered with a large white cloth, with something under it. The walrus lifted the sheet, showing a Mobian.

"Seeing it just makes it worse..." Knuckles complained.

Rotor shook his head. "Female Mobian, mid-twenties, cause of death was an overdose."

"And overdose of what?" Tails asked, feeling like he knew the answer already.

"Fokus," said Rotor.

"So, did she have an implant?" Sonic asked. "Normally, Fokus works more on those who have implants, doesn't it?"

Rotor nodded. "That's true. And yes, this girl did have an implant. But that's not why I brought you down here."

"Why are we here then?" Tails asked.

"Well, just to show you that Fokus truly is a dangerous thing," Rotor warned. "I like you guys a lot, and it's terrible that you don't really have a job here any more."

"We'll be careful around that stuff," Sonic said, looking at the body again. "Poor girl..."

Rotor nodded. "The thing is, the implant was recent as well. In fact, studies I've done showed that she was on Fokus before getting an implant... which explains her arms."

The blue hedgehog looked curiously, almost throwing up in his mouth. "Jesus Christ... what happened?"

The walrus sighed. "The rotting that you can see on the arms is the skin peeling and breaking away. This is before she gained the implant, as afterwards, it was much less severe."

"So, like krokodil," Shadow said.

"What's that?" Knuckles asked.

"It's a drug similar to heroine, only with way worse side effects," Rotor answered. "Much like the skin rotting away."

"So, does the skin stop rotting altogether after getting an implant?" Tails asked.

"That's what I'm having an issue with," Rotor said. "The effects when one is implanted are more psychological than physical. But we just don't know what those effects are just yet. I haven't gotten that far into it."

"Well... good luck," Knuckles said. "Is it okay if we leave now? I just had lunch, and I don't want to make a mess of your office."

The walrus chuckled. "Of course. But be sure to be careful. Come Monday, you aren't officers any more. Anyone who doesn't know that could try and force you into anything."

"We'll be careful," Sonic nodded. "Thanks for your concern, Rotor."

Rotor nodded. "Take care."

The four left the room, each shuddering a bit. "To think, we were probably like that the other night..." Shadow said.

"Only because of an accident, and not due to drugs," replied Tails.

"We'd better keep on our toes," Knuckles said. "We've got to stay careful. But for now, let's go get my car back. Maybe a fun drive around will take my mind off of things."

* * *

 **So, that's another chapter done! It got here quickly than my last one did! I hope that you all enjoyed it, and that it was a good chapter, despite the lack of violence. There'll be more to come soon, trust me. I expect to pump out at least one more chapter of this before the year ends, as well as something else. Anyway, the next chapter will be a bit more relaxed, as the guys will be having fun at the bar. I'll see you all then. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	13. Off Time

"All right," Sonic said, looking at himself in his bedroom mirror, "I'm about ready to go."

"I can't believe that you're fired now," said Sonia from behind him. "I don't want to be the sister of a washed up rookie cop..."

"Gee, thanks for the support," Sonic said. "I love you too."

Sonia giggled. "I am excited about your new job on Monday."

"It's technically the same job," Sonic shrugged. "Just a bit looser in the sense of the word." He then grabbed some cologne, spraying it on himself. "Ah... nothing like the pungent whiff of pinewood to go out on my last day on the job."

"You're still technically a cop for three more hours," Sonia noted. "You could have kept the uniform on."

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "They let us go earlier than usual. It would have been pointless to keep the uniform."

"Did it feel good?" his sister asked.

"For as long as it lasted?" Sonic smiled and nodded. "Yeah. It felt pretty good to wear it."

"At least you've spent your last day having fun with your friends," Sonia shrugged. "And besides, Knuckles got his car back."

"That reminds me," Sonic said, checking his watch, "he should be here any moment now."

"Well, maybe he took his time to get ready like you did?" Sonia suggested.

The blue hedgehog smiled, looking into the mirror at his clothes. He wore a light green button up t-shirt over a black tank top, with a pair of blue jeans and some black trainers completing the look. Just in case, he had his police ID in the left breast pocket of his shirt.

"You're honestly taking that with you?" Sonia asked, gesturing to her brother's ID badge.

"Eh, it might help us get a free drink or two in," Sonic shrugged.

"You're not even having real drinks," Sonia pointed out. "You're just grabbing cokes."

"It beats going there for water," the blue hedgehog chuckled. He then craned his head as he heard a horn. "Ah, that'll be the big red moron."

Sonia slapped her brother's shoulder. "That's your friend."

"Correction; that's one of my friends," Sonic said. "We do that shit all the time to each other. We don't mean it."

"Well, how about a hug for your brother before you go?" Manic asked, walking in from the bathroom and rubbing his face with a wet piece of tissue.

"How's the eye?" Sonic asked.

"Still hurts like hell, thank you for asking," Manic replied. "I'm so glad that you drove Nack and those other sons of bitches out of Green Hill."

"Yeah, but that does mean that they're just going to cause trouble somewhere else," Sonic said.

"And you can't go after them because you don't have a job any more, right?" Manic said.

The blue hedgehog playfully sighed. "I told you before, we do still have a job. It's just a bit different nowadays."

"Do you have any plans to get around that loophole?" asked Sonia. "Nack is still out there, after all."

"I'm aware of that, but even when we get our new jobs, there's nothing that we can do about it," Sonic shrugged. "We might be more freelance, but we still need to wait to get called in before doing anything. We can't run anything ourselves quite yet."

"Yes, but you have to remember, it's any jurisdiction from anywhere," smiled Manic. "What if you wind up getting called up to wherever Nack is? Better yet, what if your mission is to take him out?"

"Not that I don't like your enthusiasm, but there's a very slim chance of that being the case," Sonic said.

"Why don't you use the awesome power that your implant has given you?" Manic suggested. "It might help."

"I don't know what my power is yet," Sonic shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "Let's just hope that it gets here fast." There was another honk from outside, and Sonic turned to his siblings. "All right, I'll be back later."

"Mum already knows where you're off to," said Manic. "We'll tell her the rest when she gets here."

The blue hedgehog nodded his thanks before hugging his brother. "You did ask for a hug."

"I did indeed," Manic laughed.

Sonia shrugged, and was about to talk off before Sonic caught her in a hug too, causing her to try to push him away. "It was cute when you were little, it's not so cute now."

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "All right, I'll see you guys later."

He then turned and walked out of the room, heading downstairs and straight to the front door, where he saw Tails stood there about to knock. Looking past his two-tailed friend, Sonic saw Knuckles in his car, with Shadow in the passenger's seat.

Sonic then took in the attires of his friends, and all had dressed somewhat similarly to him, only with slight variations; Tails wore a dark purple and black striped long sleeved shirt under a red sleeveless hoodie, with a pair of beige shorts and black boots; Knuckles wore a white vest over a red sports shirt, with dark brown cargo pants and light brown boots; and Shadow wore a bright blue polo shirt under a black leather jacket, with skinny blue jeans and red sneakers.

"Dude, what kept you so long?" Tails asked as Sonic shut his door.

"I was saying goodbye to my family is all," Sonic replied.

Tails chuckled, then sniffing. "Ooh... nice cologne. Shouldn't you save some for Amy tomorrow, though?"

"Eh, I've got plenty," Sonic replied.

"She still doesn't know that you're fired, right?" Tails brought up.

"Still no, but I will be telling her tomorrow," the blue hedgehog answered. "Also, just me? Dude, we all lost our jobs because of what happened. Because of me..."

"If you say it was your fault one more time, I'll make you drink actual beer," Tails teased. "Stop worrying about it so much, man."

"Yeah," Knuckles added as Sonic got into the car. "Tonight is all about not worrying about that shit. Let's go to the bar, have a few drinks, play some pool, and just have a little fun."

"No hustling people this time, Shadow," Tails said, getting into the back of the car to join Sonic.

"But I'm so good at it," the black and red hedgehog defended, smirking.

Knuckles shook his head and started the car as Sonic lifted a hand to wave at his siblings, who stood at the front porch and waved back. As they drove, Knuckles turned the radio on, switching to a rock radio station.

"Ooh, sweet," Sonic said. "They're playing one of my jams."

"Want me to turn it up?" Knuckles asked.

"If you wouldn't mind."

The red echidna chuckled, turning the radio up. The four in the car sang along to the tune, making some instrumental sounds with their mouths as well while they kept driving. This happened with several more songs before they reached the Midnight Oil bar.

They turned around to the front parking lot, soon finding a good space for their car to park that was in a middle range of sorts; not too far away from the bar, but close enough to it that they didn't have to walk that long.

The group reached the front door of the bar, where it was protected by a large Mobian lion as the bouncer. "ID, please," he said in a low rumble.

The four officers pulled out their ID cards and showed them, with Sonic speaking. "Will these do?"

"We're not in trouble, are we?" the lion asked.

"Nah," Sonic replied. "Tonight's our last night until we get our new jobs on Monday."

The lion then chuckled. "I think that I remember you guys now... yeah! You're those graduates, right?"

"That's us," Tails smiled.

The lion chuckled again. "It's good to see that you all got home in one piece." He then gestured to Knuckles. "Especially you."

"Eh, it's just how I do," Knuckles shrugged.

"Going to take it easy this time?" the bouncer asked.

"We're not going to be drinking any alcohol at all tonight," Sonic said. "We've got to clear our desks by tomorrow. Then by Monday, we get new desks... I assume."

"Being transferred to a different city?" the lion asked.

"Same city, different position," said Sonic. "We're going to be freelance agents."

"Ah, I see," the lion nodded. "Well, good luck. And remember to take it easy, okay?"

"We will," Sonic nodded. "Thanks."

With that, the bouncer stepped aside, letting the four enter the bar. The red painted double doors had silver handles which they pushed down to enter, instantly stepping on the well designed violet and dark orange carpet that adorned the majority of the floor of the bar. The bar itself was only one level, but it had a large ground floor; several doors led out to the outside at the back of the bar. There were bathrooms, a kitchen, and a sort of game room which held not only a pool table, but also some tables for video games, free wireless connection, and some tables for board games.

Then there was the centrepiece in the bar itself; it was large, had the shape of half of a square, and freshly polished redwood made up the bulk of the bar. Several towels adorned the bar, and with plenty of levers that were connected to small machines that had the consumers' desired drinks. Behind the bar were several people working to get everyone their drinks, and behind the barkeepers was a wall of other beverages, which consisted of a wide range of liquors, whiskeys, ciders, or just straight up beers.

The four went to the main bar, managing to find an empty space where they could order drinks, with Tails speaking. "Could we have four cokes in bottles please?"

"Cokes?" the woman behind the counter asked, a pink Mobian hedgehog. "You come all this way to this great bar to order cokes?"

"We're cops," Tails defended. "We're still on the job, so to speak."

The female shook her head. "I can't believe you guys," she said, then turning to Sonic. "Wait... I recognise you from somewhere..."

"Um... I was about to say the same thing to you," Sonic said. "You must be Rosy."

"What gave it away?" Rosy asked.

"The fact that Amy wouldn't wear a top that deep," Sonic replied, looking Rosy in the eyes as he said.

"Come on, there's nothing wrong with wanting an extra tip or two," the pink hedgehog shrugged with a wink.

"I'm not touching that one," Sonic replied, turning around. "Come on, let's find a table."

Before Tails could speak, the other three had already departed to a table. "It's always me... why? Why is it always me?"

Rosy leaned on the bar, unintentionally pushing her breasts close together. "You must be Tails... you know, you really are fluffy..."

Tails blushed deeply. "Th-Thank you..." he gulped. "Um... could I just get the drinks and go, please?"

"Aw, you're shy!" Rosy beamed. "You're so cute when you're shy." She then looked around him and giggled. "What's up with your tail there?"

"Tails," said the yellow fox, turning around to see them spinning around. "It's plural..."

"So, you were named after your tails?"

"Nicknamed," Tails said. "My real name is Miles, but everyone just calls me Tails."

"You know, Miles, you're acting like a real gentleman," said Rosy, leaning in to whisper. "Maybe you could teach a bad girl like me a lesson..."

Tails gulped down a breath. "I'm afraid I'm somewhat spoken for..."

"Is it serious?" Rosy asked.

"Hard to say," Tails shrugged as his tails calmed down. "We haven't even had our date yet."

Rosy sighed. "Regardless, all the good ones are always taken. I won't try to get in your way."

"Really?" the yellow fox replied.

The pink hedgehog nodded. "Sure. I might be promiscuous, but I won't get in people's ways if they have someone in their sights."

"Well, that's very admirable of you," Tails smiled.

"Just take good care of whoever this girl is," Rosy replied, handing over the drinks. "Oh, before you go, I have a message for Sonic."

"What is it?" Tails asked.

Back at the table, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles looked through the menus on their booth. They'd felt hungry, and since they didn't stop by Jade Mountain to grab food, they began perusing through what to eat. As they did so, Tails returned, handing everyone their bottles before taking his own seat.

"Sonic," the fox said.

"Yo," the blue hedgehog replied. "What's up?"

"Rosy said that Amy has a message for you."

"What is it?"

Tails shrugged and gave is friend a hug before kissing his cheek. "That was it..."

"That was... weird..." Sonic said.

"Hey, Rosy lowered the price on the drinks for it," Tails said, noticing the menus. "I swear to God, if you send me back over..."

"We won't," said Knuckles. "Shadow will take the orders in."

"I will?" the black and red hedgehog asked.

"You will."

"Fine..." Shadow grunted as he stood up. "But I'm not going to come back and kiss and hug any of you."

"We're more than okay with that," Tails added.

"So, what's everyone having?"

"A cheeseburger with pickles, tomato, and chilli sauce for me, and some fries," Sonic said.

"Same here, but with onions on there," Knuckles added.

Tails shrugged. "I'll be having a bacon and egg sandwich with grilled cheese and ketchup on it. No fries for me, though."

"Eh, I'm sure that we'll get a whole bowl between us," said Knuckles. "We could all share."

"I call dibs on any accidental curly fries!" Sonic said.

Shadow shook his head, walking over to the bar and finding Rosy, who grinned. "Ooh, aren't you a broody sort?"

"It's kinda my thing," Shadow shrugged.

"Well, how about I help to break you out of shell?" she asked, tracing a finger over his chest.

"You know, you remind me of another girl I know," Shadow smirked, catching Rosy's hand and moving it away.

"And what's your relationship with said girl?" Rosy asked.

"It's... complicated," Shadow replied.

"Complicated how?"

"Well, let's just say that I wasn't always the honest cop type."

"Indicating that you are now?" Rosy chuckled. "You lone wolf types always have something to hide."

"It's kinda hard to hide anything when all of your info is in a police database."

The pink hedgehog shrugged. "Well, I said it to the fluffy cute one, so I'll say it to you too; I won't try to steal you from your girl, even if it is complicated."

"Thank you for understanding," Shadow said.

"Anyway, what can I do for you?" Rosy asked.

"I'd like to order some food for myself and my friends."

Rosy nodded, taking a pen and notepad out of one of her pockets. "What'll you be having?"

"I'll take two cheeseburgers, one with pickles, tomato, and chilli sauce, the other with the same stuff but some extra onion. A bacon and egg sandwich with ketchup and grilled cheese, and finally, a small pepperoni pizza. Sliced into six, if possible," Shadow said.

"Anything else?" Rosy asked, writing down the order.

"A big bowl of fries to share between us. And that's it, really."

The pink hedgehog giggled. "All right, I've got your table in mind. I'll bring the food over when it's all done."

"Thank you," the black and red hedgehog smiled back.

He then watched as Rosy turned and went to the back of the bar, leaving through a door there to what Shadow only assumed to be the kitchen. As she did this, Shadow went back to his booth with the others, sitting back in his seat.

"The food order has been placed," said Shadow. "How much will it be?"

"We'll wait until Rosy comes back before paying," said Sonic. "But keep your hands on your wallets just in case."

"Well, the burgers cost about $2.25 each, so that's $4.50 from me and Sonic," said Knuckles. "What they put in it doesn't change the price."

"And my sandwich costs $1.70, so that makes it $6.20," Tails added. "What did you get, Shadow?"

"Yeah, you never did tell us," Sonic pointed out.

"A mini pepperoni pizza," Shadow replied.

Tails flicked through the menu, finding the aforementioned pizza. "It's $3.95, so that's the most expensive thing on there."

"And that's not to mention the big bowl of fries," said Knuckles. "That's $1.25 on its own."

"And also, Rosy did lower the price on our drinks," Tails said. "They would normally cost $1.00, but she lowered it to 75 cents each, so that's $3.00 total."

"Well, add it up, genius," Knuckles smirked.

The yellow fox sighed. "Let's see... adding all of the prices up that's about... $14.40."

Sonic nodded, seeing Rosy walk over with the food. "Here you boys go!"

"It didn't take long to get that done," Tails noted as they all handed their money over.

"That's a little much, isn't it?" Rosy asked.

"It's for the food and the drinks," said Sonic. "We put it all together ourselves, and worked out the number between us."

"Yeah, we did..." Tails muttered under his breath.

"So, you all pitched in?" Rosy smiled. "Nice going."

"Oh, wait," Sonic said.

"What?"

"Two things," the blue hedgehog said, reaching into his wallet to grab an extra $3.50. "Here's an extra tip for you."

"Aw, thanks!" said Rosy. "What's the other thing?"

Sonic stood up and gave Rosy a kiss on the cheek. "My message for Amy when you next see her. And tell her I say hi."

The pink hedgehog smiled. "I'll be sure to do that. Now, please enjoy your meal." She then turned and walked away.

Sonic grinned and turned to the others. "What, you couldn't offer the nice young lady anything extra?"

"Nah, we left that to you," Tails grinned.

"Yeah," Knuckles added. "If there's any accidental curly fries in the bowl, you may as well pay for them."

"You did call dibs, after all," Shadow threw in.

Sonic shrugged. "At least I did it out of the kindness of my own heart."

Tails smiled. "Let's get to eating."

The others nodded, and soon began feasting on their food and drinking their drinks. As they finished their first round, Knuckles offered to get in another one, so he went back over to the bar, smiling at Rosy.

"Another four, please," he said, placing the drinks on the counter.

"You're not taken too, are you?" Rosy asked.

"Actually, of the four of us, I'm the only one in a truly committed relationship," Knuckles shrugged.

"Well, your girlfriend must be very lucky," Rosy smiled as she went about pouring more drinks.

As the red echidna looked around, he turned to see another large zebra behind him, his hair the traditional black and white, albeit with dark green eyes. He grunted as Knuckles turned around to face him.

"Hey, it's you!" the zebra said in a deep voice.

"Yeah, it's me," Knuckles said. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"I don't think you'd remember," the zebra replied. "I also don't think that you remember spilling one of your drinks on me by accident."

"Well, I'm sorry for last time," Knuckles said. "But you won't have to worry about that tonight. No alcohol for me or my friends."

"Oh, they're here too, are they?" the zebra asked.

"They are," Knuckles answered. "Why? Did they do something wrong as well?"

"Nope. Just you."

The red echidna sighed as Rosy returned with the drinks, placing them on the counter. Knuckles turned to grab them, turning to see the zebra still in his way. The echidna sighed. "There's plenty of other places on the bar to order, dude."

"That's not what I have an issue with," said the zebra.

"You do know that I'm a cop, right?" Knuckles said.

"You think I care?" The zebra stepped closer to Knuckles. "I don't care if you're a cop. I don't care about what you do. The fact is, you never apologised to me."

"But he just did apologise to you..." Rosy pointed out.

"Was I talking to you, slut?" The zebra growled, pointing a hoof at Rosy.

"All right, you're taking it way too far now," said Knuckles.

"Oh, so that riled you up, huh?" The zebra laughed. "You do have a set on you after all."

"So do my friends."

The zebra cocked an eyebrow before turning around to see Sonic, Shadow, and Tails. He recognised these three as well, but didn't have nearly as much hatred towards them as he did with Knuckles.

"So, you want to play the numbers game?" the zebra growled.

"We don't want to," Sonic said.

"But that doesn't mean that we won't if we have to," Tails added.

"Think you're tough, little man?" The zebra laughed. "I can play the numbers game too!"

The others turned to see three other Mobians walking towards them, all male. One was a gazelle, one was a jaguar, and the last one was a wildebeest. The three were equally as large as the zebra, and they stared down the much smaller police officers.

"You know," Sonic said, walking over to Knuckles' side, "you guys look like you just jumped off the cover of Douche-Bags Daily."

"Yeah," Shadow smiled, joining his fellow hedgehog. "Seriously, who are you trying to impress with those polo shirts? By the way, they're way too tight for you."

"We don't have beef with you guys," said the gazelle. "We just want the echidna."

"He spilled a drink on one of you, and all of you suddenly have a beef with him?" Tails asked, joining the other two. "Nah, not how it works."

"You mess with one of us," said Sonic, "you mess with all of us."

"You think that you guys can take the four of us?" the wildebeest asked.

"We do," Knuckles said. "But we have a very busy couple of days ahead of us, and I don't want one of my memories of this lovely place to be of four ass-holes lying on the ground with broken noses and busted teeth."

"Yeah, it'd be hard to get blood out of the carpet," Rosy added with a giggle.

"You want to fight us too?" the jaguar asked.

The pink hedgehog jerked her head to the cabinet of the bar, forcing the others to look and see a large shotgun. It wasn't high-tech, but it looked well-used and still very powerful, despite its age.

"It's not just for decoration," Rosy said. "I will blast all of your asses out of this bar if you don't leave my friends alone."

"What, security won't do it for you?" the zebra asked, chuckling.

"Would you rather have the big lion at the door slowly strangle you to death?" Rosy asked. "Or my old school twelve-gauge blowing all of your heads off?"

"If you won't do it, then could one of us have a shot?" asked Knuckles. "No pun intended, by the way."

"We are still policemen for another hour and a half," Sonic smiled. "Any gun is fair game for us."

"Any weapon period is fair game for us," said Shadow.

The zebra grunted. "I don't have time to waste on you scrawny bastards anyway." He turned to his friends. "Let's leave them be."

As soon as the group was out of earshot, Sonic spoke. "That could have been nasty..."

"Yeah, for them," Knuckles grinned, turning to Rosy. "Thanks for the backup."

"Any time," Rosy smiled.

"Also, cool gun," said Sonic. "Can't beat the classics."

"Eh, if security doesn't work, buckshot is usually very convincing," the pink hedgehog chuckled.

"I've been meaning to ask something," Tails said.

"Shoot."

"Well, we were at this bar about last week," the yellow fox started. "How come we didn't see you then? Or did we just not recognise you?"

"Actually, I was here last week," said Rosy. "But I was swamped with tables, so I didn't get a chance to say hi to you guys. I didn't even get to say congratulations for getting your job."

"Well, you have a pretty good chance to say it now that we're getting our new job as freelancers," Knuckles smiled.

Rosy playfully shook her head. "Congratulations. You dropped out, and are moving on to better things," she giggled.

"Sheesh, make it sound all negative, why don't you..." Sonic playfully moped.

"In all honesty, it is really cool that you're getting that chance," Rosy said. "Congrats are in order."

She then walked around the bar to give them all a group hug, which they joined in with. Even Shadow hugged back, which Rosy wasn't expecting. After they all broke their embrace, Rosy went back around the bar.

"Your next round of drinks is free for that save back there, by the way," she smiled.

"Does that technically mean this round?" asked Knuckles. "Because I did ask you beforehand, but then those dickheads showed up, so..."

"On a technicality, yes," Rosy nodded, fixing the drinks up and handing them over.

"What are you going to say if someone questions that?" Sonic asked before taking a sip.

"I'll just tell them that you guys are cops, and you earned it," Rosy shrugged.

"Cops or not, we'd still pay regardless," Tails smiled.

"Aw... you're too cute for your own good," Rosy beamed. "Get back to your table before I pick you up and steal you."

"I think she means it, dude," Sonic whispered in his friend's ear.

The others chuckled, walking back to their table and taking their seats. They'd almost finished their main food, with Shadow being the only one to have not finished his mini pizza, having two slices left. He picked one up as Sonic spoke.

"You know, I've been thinking about something," the blue hedgehog said.

"That's never a good thing," Knuckles playfully said.

"I'm being serious, dude," Sonic replied.

"What's it about?" said Shadow.

"Nack," said Sonic. "I'm worried about what he's got going on now."

"Look, he's gone for now, okay?" said Knuckles. "Good riddance to bad rubbish."

"That's the problem," Tails pointed out. "He's gone, but we don't know where. And since we know so little about him, we don't have a clue about where he could be."

Shadow finished his pizza, picking the plates up. "We'll carry this on when I get back."

The others nodded, and sat in silence as Shadow took the plates back to the bar. He handed them to Rosy, who rushed them to the kitchen, and soon, Shadow walked back over to the booth, picking his drink up as he stood.

"Where are you going?" Tails asked.

"The back room to play pool," the black and red hedgehog replied. "You guys coming?"

The others chuckled, rising from their seats and picking their drinks up as they stood. They followed their friend to the back room, walking through the door and seeing one of the two pool tables free to play at.

Sonic went over, inserting a coin into the machine to eject the balls to the bottom of the table. Shadow went about setting up the triangle, using the cloth that covered the small compartment at the bottom of the table as a guideline for how to arrange them.

"Traditional rotation pool, I see," Sonic said. "Coupled with that shotgun at the bar, I'd say that we've travelled back one hundred years."

"Isn't technology a great thing?" Tails smirked, seeing a Mobian sat at a computer, playing an old game.

"So much work to advance to the future," Knuckles said, grabbing two cues, "only to find out more about the world's past."

"So, what are the teams?" asked Tails.

"I'm thinking me and Sonic against you and Shadow," Knuckles replied, handing the yellow fox the other cue while keeping one.

"Who goes first?" Tails asked.

Sonic pulled a coin from his pocket. "Flip for it."

"I call tails," said Shadow.

"Why call him?" asked the blue hedgehog. "He's stood right next to you."

"Flip the damn coin," Shadow smirked.

"Heads up," Sonic shrugged, flipping it. He caught it, placed it on his wrist, and spoke. "Tails. Looks like their side goes first." He returned the coin to his wallet, then his wallet to his pocket.

"Who's breaking?" asked Tails.

"You want to give it a shot?" Shadow asked.

The yellow fox shrugged, getting to the top of the table and using some chalk on his cue before aiming at the cue ball. After a few movements, he fired, breaking the balls evenly, with the orange striped thirteen near one of the corner pockets.

"Good break, dude," said Sonic, standing up to take a shot. He aimed for the stripe near the corner pocket, but bounced off the wall next to it, gently colliding with one of the spots.

"Close one," said Knuckles as Shadow stepped up.

"It just gently brushed against it. It was almost in," Sonic said, handing Knuckles the cue.

"If by gently brushed against it, you mean completely missed it, I agree," Knuckles nodded.

Shadow smiled before focusing on the game. He tried aiming for the stripe near the pocket, but since the cue ball was so close to the main pile, it was going to be hard to get a good enough shot off from where he was.

"Just got to take this easy..." Shadow said, aiming his cue at an angle and firing. The cue ball did a little jump before hitting the stripe in. "Looks like we've got stripes."

"Sweetness," said Tails.

Shadow chuckled, focusing on hitting the main pile more. He gave it a hard hit, hoping to break the pile up more. Since it was just a stripe and two spots left, he didn't have much issue with it, aiming for the singular stripe of the pile.

After he sat back down, Knuckles went up to the table. Seeing the spotted red number three, he aimed for it as it was near one of the side pockets. It barely went in, grazing off the cushion next to it.

"Aw, dammit! So close," the red echidna said to himself.

"You'll get the next one, dude," Tails said, walking up to the table.

"Let's hope so."

After more playing, eventually it came down to Tails and Shadow having the advantage, with just the black eight ball left. Sonic and Knuckles had the purple four and the green six left to sink in, and after a missed shot from Shadow in hoping to sink the black in one of the side pockets, Sonic stepped up.

He analysed the table, seeing the two spotted balls at opposite sides. Near a bottom corner was the green six, and further up in between the middle and top right corner pocket was the purple four.

Since the green was pressed firmly against the cushion, Sonic knew that he had to aim carefully. If he hit it dead on, or hit it too softly, he'd risk losing the game. He had to press against the cushion and hit the side of the six hard enough to sink it.

Taking a deep breath, he finally took his shot, smashing the cue ball down to the bottom cushion. Luckily, it brushed against the green's side, causing it to slide over to the corner pocket, and an agonising second later, it sunk in.

Sonic put his hand on his chest. "That was too damn close..." he said.

"But you did it," said Shadow.

Sonic nodded, going to the bottom end of the table. While the shot was good, the cue ball was now only two inches away from the cushion, making it hard to shoot the ball from where he was.

"Well, here's goes nothing," he said to himself.

He aimed and fired, and the ball made its journey to the purple four, connecting with it and hitting it towards the top corner pocket... only for it to bounce between the two cushions of the pocket and roll to the top cushion, now being in the same position that the green was in earlier, while the cue ball was decently away from the cushion, now being in the same place that the purple was.

"Aw... that's just not fair," said the blue hedgehog.

"Hey, you put up an admirable performance," said Tails as he stepped up to the table, "but you just got unlucky."

"God, I want you to mess this up so badly right now," Sonic smirked.

The yellow fox shrugged, grabbed the chalk for his cue as he spoke. "Eight ball, middle pocket," he said. He aimed at the cue ball carefully, not wanting to get overconfident, and he fired, sinking the black ball easily. "Game, set, and match."

"I think that's tennis," said Knuckles. "Then again, it just applies to most sports, I think."

They all chuckled and shook hands as they put their cues on the table, leaving them there for whoever was next. They grabbed their drinks and left the room, going back to their booth again.

"You know, we never did finish that conversation from earlier," said Tails as they sat down.

Knuckles turned to Sonic. "The floor is yours, dude."

Sonic nodded. "Okay... what I'm about to say might sound crazy, so bear with me."

"We're listening," Tails said.

"And besides," Shadow added, "I'm sure that whatever you're about to say can't be any crazier than the situation we're in now."

Sonic breathed out a sigh. "What if we did our own little side thing of finding Nack?"

"You were right," said Knuckles. "That is crazy."

"This isn't a time for your jokes," said Tails.

"Who's joking?" Knuckles shrugged. "I'm being serious. If we try to pull this off, Avery will be all over us, and we could lose another job that we'd barely get. I don't know about you guys, but I ain't looking forward to doing that twice in one year."

"You didn't let me finish," Sonic chuckled. "Yes, looking for Nack on our own is risky. It might even be stupid. I'm aware of that. But what if we try not to make it so obvious?"

"How are we going to pull that off?" asked Tails. "We'll only do stuff when we're called in, remember? The police forces will take care of the rest of it."

"Screw the police forces," Sonic said. "I'm talking about us and Nack. Sure, we're only there to be called up for stuff, but we are freelance agents. We might not be able to run our own missions, but what if we don't try to rush for our chase for Nack?"

"So, what are you getting at, exactly?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic smiled wide. " I'm saying that we take our time with it. We look for any info that we can find on that weaselly bastard, but we be careful with it."

"How are we going to get that info?" asked Tails.

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe Nack left some people behind in some cities that he either screwed over or just forgot about."

"Nack really seems like the kind of dude who'd kill a person that he didn't need any more," Knuckles said. "Or the kind of guy who'd be disloyal. Thick as thieves, and all that."

"Maybe he just kills people who are disloyal to him," Shadow suggested. "Maybe that's why he's got so many friends; they don't want to get on his bad side."

Sonic chuckled. "You guys do get my point, though. I just need to know if you're with me."

Tails nodded. "I'm your best friend. Of course I'm with you."

Knuckles smirked. "And you obviously need me to make the rest of you guys look good. And also, you're my friend. I wouldn't be where I am without you." He nodded. "I'm in."

Shadow grinned to himself. "And I like to think that I add and air of mystique to the group. I'm in too."

Sonic sighed happily and nodded. "All right... that's good. But we need to be careful. And it needs to be perfect, or not at all. We can't half-ass this."

"We're with you," said Knuckles.

The blue hedgehog raised his drink. "To our new jobs, and to taking care of Nack."

"Hear, hear," Knuckles replied.

The four then clinked their drinks together before gulping them down. Checking his watch, Sonic noted that it was getting late. Since he was the only one not to have been to the bar at some point, he offered to take the empty bottles back.

As he set them on the bar, he smiled at Rosy. "Good to see you're still hard at work here."

"Eh, it's a much easier night than usual," Rosy replied. "With the rumours of Nack being in Green Hill, more people were panicking. Now that he's been driven out of the city, business is much calmer." She then giggled. "Plus, cute guys give me kisses on the cheek and decent tips."

Sonic laughed a bit. "I've been meaning to ask, how does all this work, exactly?"

"How does what work?" Rosy replied as she picked the bottles up from the bar.

"Amy working as a teacher by day, and you working in a bar at night," the blue hedgehog said.

Rosy placed the empty bottles into a green plastic bin with a recycling label on it before speaking. "It's actually a secret identity. I really am Amy, but I just wear more revealing clothing and suddenly gain a more flirtatious attitude."

"Huh. I thought something was up with that," Sonic replied, equally as serious before laughing. "Seriously, how does it work?"

"Well, I don't do much around the house in the day minus cleaning it and just goofing around," Rosy shrugged. "Amy works during the day, and I usually get to work here at the bar about an hour after she gets back home from school."

"Does it take long to get here?" Sonic asked.

Rosy nodded. "As a rule, yes. That's my only regret about the house that we own; both of our jobs are so damn far away from where we live."

"Well, if it helps, you make a good barkeep," Sonic said.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time a troubled soul shows up. I might even get a towel ready to wipe over the bar for no reason as I listen to their problems."

"Better make sure you're not leaning over so much," Sonic shrugged. "I'm just saying, their eyes might not be focused on the towel."

"Isn't that the whole point?" Rosy giggled. "I'll be sure to pass your message on to Amy. Now, get on out of here."

"Will do," Sonic chuckled, turning to walk away.

"Oh, and Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

The blue hedgehog turned to be met with a kiss from Rosy on the cheek. "That's me thanking you for dealing with those ass-holes from earlier."

Sonic looked around. "I don't see them anywhere."

"I think they're on the other side of the bar," Rosy said. "They might not even be able to notice you pass by."

"Either that, or they'll be too drunk to care," Sonic shrugged. "See you around."

He then turned to leave again, this time not being distracted by Rosy, and headed out the door where his friends were waiting for him. He saw them standing by Knuckles' car, waiting for Sonic to come over.

"What kept you so long?" Tails asked.

"Was just having a nice chat with the friendly barkeep," Sonic grinned.

"Nothing like getting to know your future sister-in-law," said Knuckles as he got into the driver's seat.

"I'm worried of what their kids will think about their weird uncles," said Tails. "One's a big red echidna, one's a broody hedgehog, and the last one is a fox with two tails."

"Maybe my future kids will like your tails," Sonic shrugged. "Dammit... well played."

"You walked right into that one," Shadow grinned.

Before Knuckles started the car, he turned to the door to see the four Mobians from earlier stumble out of the bar. They appeared to be standing weakly, and one of them keeled over, almost throwing up.

"Either they drunk a lot of booze in little time," said Sonic, "or they just can't hold their liquor."

"Come on," said Knuckles, starting up the car. "Let's head home. It's getting late."

The others agreed, and they drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road. Within little time, Sonic, Tails, and Shadow were each dropped off home, leaving Knuckles as the last one.

Not wasting any time, he made his way to his and Shade's home. He put on some music to help him pass the time, and he soon arrived at their house, pulling into the driveway and killing the engine before getting out of the car.

He walked to the front door and leaned down to get the spare key from under the welcome mat, using it to unlock the front door. The living room light was on, and Knuckles went inside to see Shade awake and watching a horror movie.

Silently, the red echidna sneaked up on his orange counterpart from behind during a scary scene in the movie where a masked killer was about to grab the main heroine from behind and stab her with his knife.

The moment that the loud music sting played, Knuckles yelled, "BOO!" from behind the couch.

"Oh, hey babe," Shade said, completely unfazed by the scaring attempt.

"I tried so hard..." Knuckles pouted.

Shade giggled. "Next time, try a little harder." She then paused the movie. "How was the bar with the guys?"

"Pretty good," Knuckles said. "No beer of any kind, as promised. We had some cokes, some bar food, had a game of pool... it was just a nice time, really."

"So, do you want to curl up with me on the couch and watch a bad horror movie with me?" Shade asked.

"I would love to, but I've got to go to bed early. Need to wake up pretty early tomorrow to get to the station and clear my desk," Knuckles said.

"I've been meaning to ask," the female echidna said, "where does all of your stuff go when you pack it up?"

"To our new base, I presume," Knuckles said.

"I mean, for the day. Remember, you have all of tomorrow free after you clear out at the station," Shade said.

"Well... I guess that I could bring it here. I'll just put it in a safe place, then take that stuff with me to our new base on Monday," said Knuckles.

Shade nodded. "Fair enough. Now, come here and give me some sugar, sugar."

The red echidna smiled and walked around the couch, picking his girlfriend up and hugging her. He kissed her lips, and they both moulded together into the kiss, smiling happily into their embrace before stopping.

"We'd better stop..." said Knuckles. "I don't want to have to stay up too late..."

"You're right..." Shade said, panting. "You need to go to sleep..."

"You'll join me soon, right?" Knuckles asked.

"Of course," Shade smiled.

Knuckles smiled, giving her one more quick peck on the lips before going upstairs. He decided to save his shower for tomorrow morning, instead just changing into his boxers and a pyjama shirt he had, curling up in his bed. A few hours later, he felt a pair of soft hands wrap around him from behind, causing him to smile in his sleep as he looked forward to the next couple of days.

* * *

 **This chapter wound up being much longer than I was anticipating, not to mention being more story-based. So, what do you guys think? Did you like it? What about Sonic's plan of a secret hunt for Nack? Let me know what you thought, and I'll see you all in the next one. If I don't see you before then, Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays. Either way, enjoy it. Take care and stay tuned, folks.**


	14. Looking Forward To It

Shadow the hedgehog had just woken up in his bed. He turned to see the clock at 6:55 am, making him five minutes early to the alarm. He shrugged and curled back up in bed, wanting to get the extra five minutes in.

"Wanting to catch some extra shuteye?" Maria giggled from the entrance to the bedroom.

"Just because I have to clear my desk today doesn't mean I'm not going to get all the rest that I can..." Shadow mumbled.

"But the earlier that you get up, the earlier that you can get all of your stuff cleared," Maria smiled. "Also, I made you breakfast."

"All right..." Shadow sighed as he sat up in his bed. "I'm awake now..."

Maria chuckled. "I'll wait in the kitchen while you get dressed. I turned the shower on for you too."

Shadow smiled. "I'd honestly lose my head without you."

The blonde woman shrugged. "Just happy to help. Now, hurry and get cleaned up."

The black and red hedgehog nodded, getting out from his bed and going to the shower. Despite the fact that he and Maria had separate bedrooms, they only had one bathroom to use. Shadow made his way to said bathroom and got into the shower.

He turned on the water and waited for it to heat up. As he did, he heard Maria's voice from outside. "Shadow, I've got to head off for work!"

"Okay! I'll see you when you get back!" Shadow replied.

"Don't wait on little old me. I'm sure that you've got plans!"

"I'll think of something!" Shadow chuckled. "See you later!"

"Bye!"

Soon after that, Shadow heard the sound of the front door shutting. Sighing, he stepped under the shower head to find that the water was warm. After he felt that enough time was spent in the shower, and having cleaned himself, he stepped out, using a towel from the rack near the bathroom door to dry off.

When he was done, he saw his phone on the bedside table vibrate as a message came through. He quickly finished drying off and slipped on some boxers before going over to unlock his phone, seeing that it was a voice message from Tails.

"Hey, Shadow! Just making sure that you're awake. Since you live the farthest from the station, Knuckles is driving around to pick you up last, since me and Sonic are already in the car. See you when we get there."

Shadow chuckled, pressing the record button to send one back. "Yeah, I'm up. Just got out the shower, so I need to get dressed and have breakfast. See you in a few."

After hitting send, the black and red hedgehog went over to his closet, flicking through his clothes. He settled on a dark red tank top with a black tidal wave pattern on the left side, some grey cargo pants, and white trainers. He also got his trusty black leather jacket, but didn't put it on just yet.

He picked his phone up and put it in one of his pants' pockets before heading down to the kitchen, putting his jacket on the back of one of the seats at the table. He looked on the table itself to see cheese on toast with some Worcester sauce. To the left of that, on a coaster, was a mug of hot coffee.

Shadow grabbed one of the pieces of toast and began scarfing it down before looking around the house. Despite how small it was, he and Maria had made a pretty good life for themselves. He thought about how he mostly grew up in foster homes before finding the perfect one with Maria's family... or what he thought was perfect.

The main reason that Shadow had jumped from place to place during his early childhood was because no Mobian family would take him. Maria's was his first human family, and they loved him. Well, Maria did, anyway. After a drunken rampage which soon resulted in Maria getting slapped by her own foster father, both she and Shadow left.

Shadow later found out that those parents weren't Maria's real ones, as they'd died in a plane crash whilst going on holiday when Maria was only four years old. Shadow himself never knew his own parents, just finding other Mobians and settling with them in the streets, becoming somewhat nomadic.

After Shadow and Maria had left her parents, they decided that they were both better off alone together, and they became inseparable. They did occasionally steal food here and there, much like Shadow would do later in life when he met Rouge.

'Ah, Rouge...' he thought to himself. He thought of his days as a teenager. He was still friends with Maria, but wound up hanging out with Rouge more, which only led to the hedgehog getting into even more trouble, including getting into a fight with a police officer.

'To be fair,' Shadow said in his mind, 'that officer was being an ass-hole. He just attacked Rouge unprovoked, and we didn't even do anything bad that day...'

But soon after that, he heard about Green Hill Academy. He thought it somewhat ironic; one of the things that led him to be a better person was beating up a man who was generally believed to be better than most people.

Soon after this ordeal, he made a decision. Not wanting to live on the streets for all of his life, Shadow put everything into getting a job so that he could buy himself and Maria a house. After saving up enough, he enlisted into the academy itself, and almost didn't make the cut if it weren't for Sonic helping.

Shadow was soon shaken from his thoughts of the past as he heard a horn honking outside. The black and red hedgehog looked to see that, through his thinking, he'd eaten through his food and drank half of his coffee.

He quickly, yet carefully, gulped down the second half of his warm brew before heading out the door, slipping his jacket on as he got to the front door. He opened his door, stepped out, and closed and locked it behind him, walking over to Knuckles' car.

He looked over his friends' clothing as he walked; Sonic wore a long sleeved black shirt with a fancy silver diamond design on the sleeves, along with blue jeans and red trainers. Knuckles wore a sleeveless baggy hoodie with an ice blue digital camouflage design, along with brown jeans and black boots. Lastly was Tails, who wore a short sleeved red button up shirt over a white t-shirt with cut off sleeves, along with black shorts and light brown boots.

"Ready to go?" Knuckles asked as Shadow got into the car.

"Yeah. Let's get this over with," the black and red hedgehog replied, getting into the back seat with Sonic.

Knuckles nodded and drove, since the engine was still running. Without another word, he continued the drive to the station. They did find it a bit unnecessary that they had to clear what little they had there, but they knew that they had no choice.

They soon got to the station's parking lot, Knuckles soon finding a space to park. He killed the engine, and all four in the car exited out of it. It was odd seeing Knuckles' car amongst the many standard vehicles of the police station, but it made it stand out all the more.

The four walked into the building, going up to the front desk. "What's the word?" Sonic asked.

"The word is that you've got to clear your desks," said Cosmo. "I hate to break it to you, but you don't work here any more."

"Does that mean that your date with Tails is cancelled?" Knuckles asked.

"I've been meaning to bring that up," Cosmo said, noticing the fox's gulp. "No, it's not over," she said, easing his worries. "It will just be me and him, if that's okay. Mina often goes to lunch with Ash, so it'd be nice to get away from the two for a change."

"Are those two dating?" asked Sonic.

"They are," Cosmo nodded. "They might appear to be related, but that's just because they're mongooses."

"So, you're kind of a third wheel when you all go out to dinner?" asked Sonic.

"Not always. Sometimes it's just Ash or Mina taking me out for food. As friends, of course."

"Friends..." Tails mumbled, nodding.

Mina looked and saw the yellow fox visibly shaking. "Are you all right there, fox boy?"

Tails' head snapped up immediately. "Um, y-yes! I'm fine!"

"Are you sure?" Knuckles asked. "Because you're doing a fantastic impression of a plastic garden chair in an earthquake right now."

Tails took a few deep breaths. "I'm... I'm fine... just worried, I guess..."

"What about?" Cosmo asked sweetly.

"That... well, today we have to clear stuff up, and I know that we're going out to lunch, and..." He trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"I understand," the plant girl nodded. "You think that we won't meet again, right?"

Tails nodded a bit sheepishly. "Yeah..."

"Well, that's nothing tow worry over," Mina said. "I'm sure that there's plenty of chances that we'll all bump into each other. Just because you guys don't work here any more doesn't mean that we won't meet again."

"Yeah," Knuckles added. "We're freelancers now, remember? It doesn't matter what city we get called up to; we'll always live in Green Hill."

Tails nodded. "I know. I just wish that it was easier than that..."

Sonic nodded. "Me too. But we'll make it work." He looked between Tails and Cosmo. "I'm sure that you two will get things sorted out yourselves."

The fox smiled. "Thank you, Sonic..."

"It won't be easy," said Shadow, "but we can make it worth it in the end."

"As lovely as this has all been," Mina said, "you guys really should go and get your desks sorted."

"Quick question," Sonic said.

"What's up?" asked Cosmo.

"Do we keep our cards?"

"You do, actually," said Mina. "They'll just be modified to make you freelance agents, so we'll need to take them from you. They'll be done by the time that you're finished."

"You can just do that?" Knuckles asked. "Change our cards from being part of Green Hill to being free agents?"

"It's not just us," Mina said, patting the computer next to her. "Remember: technology is our friend."

"Go on," said Cosmo. "Get to clearing. There's already some boxes waiting for you."

"Thanks for the heads up," Sonic said, turning to his friends. "Stairs or elevator?"

"Elevator," the others replied in unison.

They all went to the elevator, taking it to the third floor. They soon made it to said floor, and went to their rooms. Luckily, since they were all next to each other, it didn't take long to reach their rooms.

Also luckily was the fact that they hadn't set themselves up with everything; just what they needed at the time. It didn't take long for all four of them to have their stuff in their respective boxes, all packed and ready to go.

As soon as they were done, they walked out of their rooms, deciding to take the stairs this time as the elevators were in use. They soon made it to the ground floor, going over to Knuckles' car as he popped the trunk.

"It'll all fit in there," said the red echidna. "There's not much stuff."

"I know," Sonic said. "I even got some food from my fridge that's still good. Granted, it's in plastic containers, but still."

"We really weren't here long enough to make a mess," Tails shrugged. "It's not that hard to believe that we don't have much stuff."

"All right, let's head back inside and get our new cards," Shadow said.

The others nodded in agreement, walking back inside the building and heading straight for the desk, seeing the girls working on their computer. After a few moments, they heard a beeping noise, and Cosmo spoke.

"And there we go!" she said, pulling something from the computer. "Your new cards."

The four took them, seeing the changes on them. The cards still had their pictures on them, but their number for the Green Hill Police Department was now blank, since they were free agents. Also gone was anything associated with the G.H.P.D., whilst the foursome's biographies and such were unchanged.

"They look pretty good," Sonic grinned. "Good job, girls."

"Thanks," Mina and Cosmo smiled.

"So... I guess this is it for now, huh?" Sonic said.

"For now, yes," Cosmo smiled. "But I do have a previous engagement with your fox friend, do I not?"

"Y-You still do," Tails said nervously. "We were just going to drop our stuff off back home before coming back..."

"It's fine," Cosmo smiled sweetly. "Take your time."

The yellow fox nodded and smiled. "Thank you..."

"We'll be back soon," Knuckles said. "Thanks for all the help."

"It's cool," Mina replied. "Just don't lose those cards, okay?"

"Or your new jobs," Cosmo added.

"We'll try our best," Sonic said, waving and turning to head out.

The others followed suit, and they all hopped into Knuckles' car, instantly pulling out of the parking lot and into the main road. Quickly, they travelled to each different house and dropped off their respective belongings before all returning to the car.

Shadow's was the last house as he lived the furthest away from the station, and he hopped back into the back seat with Sonic, speaking. "Well, I'm glad that's over now."

"What's next?" Sonic asked.

"Next up is going back to the station," Knuckles replied as he made the turn, driving back for the police station. "I'm sure that Avery wants to give us a proper discharge now that it's all over."

Sonic checked his watch. "And it's close to lunch too. We'll be let go, then Tails gets to have his date."

"How are you feeling about that, by the way?" Shadow asked the yellow fox.

"I'm a little bit nervous, but I'll try to keep composed," Tails replied. "It's like Sonic said yesterday; she likes me for how I am. I'm not going to try to act like some other guy just to impress her."

"Are you sure about that?" Sonic asked. "Because when you're around us, you use big words and you're smarmier than usual. But when you're around a pretty girl, your words turns to mush."

"That's because I was born with a better upstairs brain than most," Tails said. "I try to talk with the head on my shoulders, not the one between my legs."

"What about the heart?" Sonic asked. "Maybe you could give that a try?"

The young fox nodded. "Maybe."

The rest of the drive was silent, and they soon made it back to the station. Since they'd done pretty much everything else, they decided to head straight up for Avery's office. They took the elevator, and soon got to the third floor.

They headed over to the meeting room, and the doors opened up for them. Instead of seeing Avery there, they saw Ash working hard on the TV screen. He was in the middle of sorting out a presentation when he turned his head to see Sonic and the others.

"Ah, there you guys are," the mongoose said.

"Where's Avery?" Sonic asked.

"He's up on the fourth floor in his office. He wanted to meet you guys personally to say goodbye."

"That's pretty big," Knuckles said.

Ash nodded, walking over to them. "We're all going to miss you guys."

"Hey, we'll bump into each other again," Tails said. "No need to worry about that."

"I know," the mongoose nodded. "But still... it won't be the same without you, you know?"

"We almost died and got fired already," Knuckles said. "That doesn't exactly make us the best cops in the world."

"True," Sonic added. "But thanks to this, as much as it sucks, we're going to find out more about what we can do. Maybe we'll work better this way."

"It'll be fun to see how you do," Ash smiled, extending his hand.

"Ah, screw it," Knuckles smiled, pulling Ash in for a group hug. Even Shadow reluctantly joined in the embrace.

Soon, the hug was over, and Ash laughed a bit. "Thanks. I needed that."

"We all did, I think," Sonic said. "Even Shadow. Trust us, he's happy on the inside."

"I believe it," the mongoose nodded. "Just take care out there, okay? And try not to get yourselves killed. Again."

"We'll try a bit harder this time!" Sonic smiled.

The others laughed with him and turned to leave. Since the staircase was close, and there was no point in taking an elevator up one floor, they chose the stairs, soon arriving at the top floor of the building.

"Wonder where Avery's office is?" Tails said.

"There's a sign right there, dude," Knuckles said.

The red echidna was right. The sign's design matched that of the building itself, and pointed in two directions; to the left was Avery's office, as well as the offices of other higher-ups in the department, and to the right was heavy weaponry.

"Well, let's go say goodbye to our boss," Sonic said.

"I call dibs on the old 'I'm not fired, because I quit' line," Knuckles said, raising his hand.

"It's kind of pointless, since we've technically already been fired," said Tails.

The red echidna shrugged. "Eh, it was worth a shot."

They all then headed to their left, walking down a small corridor until they came to a section of the floor with several rooms, each with an officer's name. In the centre was Avery's own office, complete with the commander's name and rank in black, bold lettering across the front of the door.

Sonic was about to knock, but heard a voice. "Come in!" Avery said.

The blue hedgehog turned to his friends and shrugged, and they opened the door and walked in, seeing their now former commander on the phone, talking as he had his back to the four who had just entered.

"Yes, of course... thank you, Dingo," Avery said. "It means a lot. All right, see you later."

"What was that about?" Tails asked.

"I was just going over some last minute details with Dingo about your new positions," said Avery.

"How come?" asked Knuckles.

"Well, as much as he likes you four, and sees the potential in you, he's still not one hundred percent safe with you being in Star Light," said Avery. "I was just going over that with him, and he's more willing to let you guys help, but he'll keep a close eye on you."

"It's not like we killed anybody or anything," said Sonic. "He's being too suspicious."

"Oh, well, it's not like you guys suffered a dangerous car crash and lost your jobs in the last week so shortly after starting," Avery retorted.

"Point taken..." Sonic mumbled.

The bear chuckled. "I'm joking, son. Mostly. But he does want to watch over you if you're over there mostly to study you in the field."

"That reminds me," said Shadow, "what exactly are the rules there?"

"Well, you will be called up for missions when needed, but how you go about them is entirely up to you," said Avery. "The only catch is that you operate amongst yourselves. You cannot bring other officers from different jurisdictions into your missions, and that includes here in Green Hill."

"We'll keep ourselves to ourselves," said Sonic. "Don't worry about that."

Avery nodded. "I know that. I have nothing but the utmost faith in you boys, and I know that you know that. But you need to be careful. Just because you guys are freelancers now doesn't mean that you're completely free."

"We know," Knuckles said. "There's always rules. We just happen to be the guys that may not have to follow them all the time."

"Which is what makes you perfect for this," Avery smiled. "You boys are going to go far, farther than you could ever hope to go whilst working here."

"We're going to miss this place," Sonic said. "It was honestly pretty cool to work here."

Avery nodded. "You shall all be missed. But now, you're moving on to much better things."

"It's only a matter of time," Tails said. "Remember, it starts tomorrow."

The bear nodded again, and walked around the table. "Well, it's not right if I don't give you guys a proper send off." He extended his hand.

"Good thing that we get to keep our guns and badges," Knuckles grinned as he shook Avery's hand. "It'll be a nice keepsake from here."

"You boys will still get to visit," Avery said, shaking Tails' hand next.

"It'd be nice to drop back in every now and then, but I don't think that we can be so casual about it," the fox replied.

Avery nodded and moved on to Shadow, who spoke. "You're right. We don't know when we might be called in, or where we could be when the call comes through."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Most our time is going to be spent in our new base anyway. We'll be fine there, provided that we have the bare essentials." He looked to see Avery extend his hand, and smirked. "No pun intended, of course," he finished, shaking the bear's hand.

"So, by bare essentials, you mean arcade machines, consoles, a pool table, and vending machines?" Knuckles asked.

"And our own stuff from home," replied Tails.

"All of what Knuckles mentioned is being taken care of," Avery said. "And Tails is right. We won't be able to provide everything, and since all four of you will be sharing the same place, you will need to bring your own things."

"When you say sharing the same place, does that mean sharing beds?" Sonic asked. "Because Shadow doesn't seem like the spooning type to me."

"Although, you can't deny that chest fur," Knuckles grinned.

Shadow shook his head as Avery spoke. "The sleeping arrangements are being taken care of. You each get your own room, much like here at the station. But the rooms at your new place will be much larger."

"That's a good thing," Tails smiled. "I like the rooms here, but they could feel a bit cramped at times."

"You won't have to worry about that, or the spooning issue," Avery chuckled. "You know, I really will miss you."

"And we'll miss you too, sir," said Sonic. "Or I guess that we can just call you Avery now, huh?"

The commissioner nodded. "Either will do." He then sighed. "Good luck in the future."

"Thank you sir," Sonic said. "Something tells me that we might need it."

"Take care."

With that, the commander walked back over to his desk as the four turned to leave the room. The headed for the elevators this time, seeing that one was free, and took it down to the ground floor.

"So, what's the plan now?" asked Sonic.

"Well, I'd best get back home to my girl," Knuckles said. "And Tails should prepare for his date."

"Dude..." Tails said, shying away a bit.

"He's not wrong," Sonic replied. "You got a breath mint?"

"I did come prepared, yes, but I'm not expecting anything to happen beyond a hug," Tails replied as the elevator stopped and opened up.

"What if she is?" asked Sonic, keeping his voice quiet.

"I like to try and be a gentleman and not try to assume," the fox shrugged. "I mean, a kiss is a kiss, of course. But I won't pressure her to do anything."

"You didn't have to pressure her into this date, so you have nothing to worry about," said Knuckles, smiling. "Trust me, everything will be fine."

"Nothing wrong with being a gentleman," Sonic said, turning to Tails. "In fact, if I've learned anything from you, hopefully I can be the same with Amy."

"So, what you're saying is you're screwed?" Shadow asked.

"Pretty much," Sonic shrugged.

Tails nodded, heading over to the front desk. He saw that Mina had already gone, and it was just Cosmo, who looked up to see Tails and the others approaching. She smiled more when Tails took the centre, the others choosing to wait outside.

"So, um..." Tails started.

"Yes?" Cosmo asked. To outsiders, it might have seemed like teasing, but Cosmo spoke with such a reassuring tone that she wanted the fox to carry on.

"Well, it's about lunchtime, so I was wondering if our date was still on?" Tails inquired.

"Of course it is," Cosmo nodded. "Do you have a car to take you?"

"My friend Knuckles might drop us off there. He's heading around that area anyway," Tails said.

"What about getting back?"

"Hmm..." Tails thought. "We could take a police vehicle instead?"

"For a date?" Cosmo giggled.

"I-Is that a bad thing?" Tails gulped.

Cosmo smiled at Tails' blushing. "It's not. But it's probably best that I drive. Since you're now an ex-cop, you might get in trouble."

Tails smiled, waiting as Cosmo walked around from behind the desk. Since this was the first time that Tails had seen the green girl's full body, he was impressed at just how beautiful she truly was; a great personality to match her looks.

"You okay?" Cosmo asked, waving her hand in Tails' face.

"Uh... yeah!" Tails blurted. "Sorry. It's just, this is the first time that I've seen more than your face. You're very pretty..."

"Well, thank you," Cosmo blushed. Not the first time she'd been called that, but the first time that it felt like it meant something. "Shall we?"

"We shall," Tails smiled.

He offered his arm, and Cosmo slipped her hand under it, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "That's what you get for being such a gentleman."

"Thank you," the yellow fox replied as the two left through the door. Tails noticed his friends waiting by Knuckles' car.

"There they are," Sonic said. "Was wondering what was keeping you."

"What's the plan?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm taking Tails to the Jade Mountain in a police car, so you guys will have to go it alone," Cosmo shrugged.

"It's cool," Knuckles said. "I've got to drop the blue boy off for his own date anyway, then take Shadow home before getting back to my own place."

Tails waved. "See you guys tomorrow!"

"See you then, buddy!" Sonic replied.

All got into their respective cars. Although Knuckles' car was closer to the exit of the parking lot, he chose to wait until Cosmo and Tails had pulled out first before pulling out himself, following closely behind.

"You know, I've got nothing better to do than kill time until my date with Amy," Sonic said.

"Oh yeah," Knuckles remembered. "It starts at five, right? And it's only... about one now."

"What should we do?" Shadow asked.

"Drop me off at home," Sonic said. "If nothing else, I should have a way to kill the time. I've got some video games to catch up on."

"Good thing you never packed up your consoles when we first moved to the station," Knuckles grinned. "All right, back home it is for you, good sir."

"Onward, noble steed!" Sonic chuckled.

Soon, they'd reached the blue hedgehog's home, and Sonic thanked his friends for dropping him off back at his house. He entered his house using his key from his pocket, opening and closing the door behind him.

In the car, Knuckles turned to Shadow, who was now taking the shotgun seat. The red echidna couldn't hide a small chortle. "Couldn't help it, could you?"

"Nope," Shadow smiled, a rare thing for him.

"So, what are your plans for today?" Knuckles asked. "Got anything going on?"

The black and red hedgehog took a breath. "Eh, I'll think of something."

Back at his house, Sonic looked over his attire. "I'm sure that this'll do for a nice dinner date with Amy. Cool, but casual; just like me." He then went to the living room, debating turning on the TV. "Hmm... I guess that a quick shower wouldn't hurt me."

He went to his bedroom and took his clothes off, carefully folding them on his bed before going into his shower. Keeping to his word, it was a quick one, and he was finished very quickly. Since his clothes weren't too dirty, he didn't worry much about them, but before slipping them back on, he grabbed some cologne from nearby to spray himself with, following that up with some antiperspirant.

He looked at his muzzle in his bathroom mirror. "Hmm... a little fuzzy around the muzzle, but not worth shaving," he shrugged to himself. "If I'm lucky, maybe Amy might find it cute."

He then put his clothes back on before heading to the living room, turning on the TV and a console. He immediately played an action racing game, going online against several people who would have spat many racial slurs and jokes about his mother had he not muted them.

"Ah... thank goodness for that button," he said to himself, playing the game relatively uninterrupted.

After enough time had passed, he turned the game off, having had 15 in total, with some being longer than others. His record of the day stood at 9 wins to 5 losses. It would have been 10 wins had the opposing team not rage quit.

"So hard to find sensible players these days," Sonic said to himself. His phone then rang in his pocket. He checked it and saw that it was Amy.

"Hey there, handsome," she spoke with a clear smile painting her voice.

"You're not going to rag on me for being late, are you?" Sonic chuckled.

"Actually, considering it's almost 4:15, so you've still got time. I was just hoping that I wasn't catching you making a last ditch effort to get ready," she laughed.

"Nah, I'm all ready to go," Sonic smiled. "I got myself smelling all nice and everything."

"Good to know," Amy replied.

"I have run into a slight issue," Sonic said.

"What's that?" Amy asked.

"I don't really have a vehicle to use to get to the park, and it's not like I can just run there at the speed of light," Sonic said, scratching the quills on the back of his head.

"You could take the bus?" Amy suggested.

"To go to a park? No offence, but that sounds like it'd be a bit too much," Sonic said. "A taxi might work, though."

"I might do the same," Amy said. "I can drive, but we don't have a car."

"Did you have one in the past?" Sonic asked.

"We used to, but someone stole it and crashed it. It's amazing that we kept our house with the money that we had to pay out to keep the car," Amy said, a bit of anger in her voice.

"I've been meaning to ask, how are you feeling after the mugging?"

"Not too bad. I still have plenty of money in the back, so it's all okay," the pink hedgehog smiled.

Sonic then had a thought. "Hey, I just realised, I never gave you my number."

"Well... this will make me sound like a stalker, but I asked the police station for your personal number. They still had it in their files since they're not fully done erasing your data since you were fired, and they kindly gave it to me," Amy said.

"I guess it's partially my own fault," Sonic said. "Had I not been so shocked by you giving me your number, I probably could have given you mine back."

"I guess I just have that effect on you," Amy giggled, her voice briefly becoming somewhat sultry for a moment before she cleared her throat. "So... is that okay?"

"I dunno..." Sonic teased. "I kind of have a rule not to date people who call me and don't ask for my number, on account of the fact that I could be getting hacked or traced by somebody."

"That makes you sound really paranoid," Amy said.

"I might be, but that doesn't mean that you're not hacking me," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

"Well, I am hot-wiring your account and stealing money from you right now," Amy said. "I guess you found me out."

"I knew it!" Sonic yelled, laughing a bit. "In all seriousness, I don't mind, really."

"Thanks," Amy said, blushing. "So, I'll see you then?"

"See you then," Sonic nodded. "Bye."

"Later."

Sonic sighed and called up a taxi to pick him up. Luckily, since the window of time was big enough, the taxi got there for 4:40. Sonic slipped on a grey sleeveless hoodie on the way out, since his shirt did well enough against the cold.

He got into his taxi, told the driver where to go, and then soon he arrived at the park. He paid the driver with money and a word of thanks before leaving, stepping foot into the park itself.

Green Hill Park was your usual affair when it came to parks; nice foliage here and there, a playground for children, and even some food stands. Sonic looked around and saw Amy sat down on one of the park's benches, and walked over to her.

"You know," he said when he was close enough, "you could get in some serious trouble for sitting so closely to the kids."

Amy smiled. "What are you going to do? Arrest me? Oh, wait, you can't any more."

"Low blow already?" Sonic grinned as he sat down with her. "And here I was thinking that you were a nice person."

Amy giggled. "The reason I'm sat here is because I know some of the kids from kindergarten class. Their parents are here too, so I don't have to worry about the trouble."

"You know their parents?" asked Sonic.

"Of course I do," Amy shrugged. "I might be a kindergarten teacher, but I'm still a teacher. Part of our job is knowing about the families of the children."

"Huh..." the blue hedgehog said.

"So, when are we going to Jade Mountain?" Amy asked.

"Straight to the point, eh?" Sonic smiled, standing up and offering his arm. "I like it. I'll call another taxi soon for us, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind a walk in the park with me first?"

"Of course not," said Amy, taking Sonic's arm. As the two began walking, she continued speaking. "So... you're officially not a cop any more, correct?"

"Actually, I'm more jobless right now if anything," Sonic said.

"Well, I can't be shacking up with some freeloader," the pink hedgehog replied. "My sister would probably love that about you."

"Speaking of your sister, me and the guys bumped into her last night at the bar," the blue hedgehog pointed out.

"Ah, yes, she told me all about it," Amy giggled. "How she got to meet the cool blue stud, the red muscle man, the cute fluffy fox, and the mysterious bad boy."

"Are those her nicknames for us?" Sonic asked. "Because Tails already has a nickname. It's Tails."

"What's his real name?" Amy asked.

"Miles Prower," Sonic said. "But he gets called Tails due to the obvious reasons."

"Miles Prower?" Amy giggled. "Sounds like a lame pun."

"It kind of is, but that's another reason people call him Tails," Sonic shrugged. "Plus, in my opinion, it just sounds cooler."

Amy smiled and nodded. "So, are you looking forward to it?"

"Of course I am," the blue hedgehog smiled. "I mean, our date is already going well, I feel. And plus, I get to try out those awesome ribs with you."

"I'm glad about that, but that's not what I'm talking about," Amy said. "I mean your new job. Are you excited about it?"

Sonic shrugged. "Honestly, I'm pretty nervous..." he said, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. "It'll be kind of weird to lead my own team of bounty hunters, especially so soon after getting fired from being police officers."

"Are you worried that your new job might go against your old one?" Amy asked.

"How do you mean?"

"Are there any differences in how you handle the law now?" Amy clarified.

"Ah. To be honest, I don't think so," Sonic said, thinking. "We might have to bend it slightly on occasion, but breaking it? We couldn't do that. The rules are that, whatever department or jurisdiction calls us up, we have to go and work for them under their laws whilst running our mission."

"That mission being helping whoever's called you up?" Amy prodded.

"Pretty much," the blue hedgehog replied. "Who knows? Maybe we'll help other cops, maybe we'll be on our own. I think that being on our own might be a bit scarier."

"Why's that?"

"Because the first time that we did stuff on our own, we got fired and almost lost our lives in the process," Sonic sighed.

"I'm glad that I didn't see you in the hospital bed," Amy shuddered. "It would have reminded me too much of myself."

"We'd only just met that night," Sonic chuckled. "I would have been incredibly crept out if you showed up to check on me while me and the others were recovering."

"You wouldn't have found it sweet?" Amy asked, fake pouting.

"Don't get me wrong; I would have liked the gesture, but to have you crying over somebody you barely met?" Sonic shrugged a shoulder. "Wouldn't be the best start off point for us."

"So, there's an us now, eh?" Amy winked.

"I'll think about it," Sonic winked back, before his stomach growled. "And I'll think about it more when we go to get our food..."

"Then let's go and get it," Amy smiled, using her free hand to pull her phone from her pocket. "Hello, taxi?"

The blue hedgehog smiled as the pink hedgehog informed the taxi company of where they were and where they needed to go. As he smiled, he'd noticed that they'd both stopped walking, which allowed him to think even more.

'I'm more than just pretty nervous...' Sonic thought to himself. 'I don't want the same thing that happened that night to happen again to us any time soon. I have to make sure that it won't happen.'

He was shaken from his thoughts by Amy's voice. "The taxi's on its way."

Sonic smiled. "Good, because I'm starving."

* * *

 **And that's it for this chapter! Sorry that it took so long; lately I'd felt kind of burnt out, and felt like I was forcing myself to write... but this year, I've been feeling a bit better. I can't guarantee when the next chapter will be out, but I can guarantee that there will be one. See you all then. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	15. Make A Move

**Earlier that day, with Tails and Cosmo...**

The two were in the police car that Cosmo was somewhat forced to drive. Had Tails taken the wheel, it could have raised suspicions, especially considering that he wasn't working for Green Hill any more.

"So, you've been there before, right?" Tails asked, his voice still somewhat hesitant.

"Hey, you didn't stutter that time," Cosmo smiled. "And to answer your question, yep. As I said, I often become the third wheel whenever Ash and Mina go up to Jade Mountain."

"So, your familiar with the ribs there?" Tails followed on with his previous question.

"Also yes," Cosmo said. "I don't have them as much as I'd like. I feel like they're something that needs to take time before you have them, you know?"

"Yeah..." the yellow fox nodded. "Having too much of a good thing could be bad for you."

"True," Cosmo said. "In fact, I don't even come here all the time when they go on dates. I usually just get stuff from our vending machines."

"Don't they only have a bunch of junk food as a rule?" Tails asked.

"Mostly, but there are some with sandwiches," Cosmo replied. "For the most part, I try to eat pretty healthily. But the ribs? I just can't resist those."

"It's the sauce, I think," Tails chuckled.

"And now even your laugh isn't nervous," the green girl smiled. "Are you getting used to me?"

Tails immediately blushed as Cosmo looked over at him. "I... uh..."

He was broken from his stuttering by a hand on his own. He looked to see that Cosmo's right hand was holding his left, as her own left hand was on the steering wheel whilst she kept her eyes on the road.

"It's all right to be nervous," Cosmo said softly, keeping her focus on the road, but using her peripheral vision also. "I'm also nervous..."

"Really?" Tails asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow. "Because you're doing a very unconvincing job of showing it."

The plant girl giggled. "I know. And neither of us should be nervous; I mean, it's just a lunch date, right? And, after today, who knows when I'll see you next?"

"Well, we are allowed to drop by, right?" Tails asked.

"Of course you are," Cosmo replied as they approached the parking lot of Jade Mountain.

"So, maybe I could see you on Tuesday?" Tails wondered.

"By Tuesday, you'll probably be taking your first full missions," Cosmo shrugged as she searched for a parking space. "Plus, you have your training to go through now that you're enhanced, and who knows how long that'll take?"

"I'm sure that we'll be allowed breaks between sessions," Tails shrugged.

Cosmo found a parking space and pulled the car in. "It is possible. But it wasn't that easy for Espio or Vector."

"Vector's was by accident, right?" asked Tails.

"It was, but he had to go through some really tough training before figuring it out," Cosmo said. "The people helping him were close to giving up, and... well, I'm sure that he told you the rest."

"Yep," Tails nodded. "So, ready to grab some lunch?"

"Only if you hold my hand," Cosmo winked.

"That'd make it really awkward getting out of the car..." Tails replied, instantly realising how dumb that sentence was.

Cosmo stifled a chuckle at his adorable awkwardness before exiting the car, the fox soon following behind. She locked the car when she was done, and met with Tails around the back of the car, offering her hand.

Tails took it, smiling. But that smile was quickly muffled when Cosmo suddenly pulled him close, kissing him on the lips. It wasn't a long or passionate kiss, but it was long enough, and Tails blushed.

"I... um..."

"Weren't expecting that until later?" Cosmo asked.

"I wasn't expecting it at all, really..." Tails replied. "I mean, I do have mints, but even then that's only as a precaution."

"Why weren't you expecting it?"

"Don't get the wrong idea," Tails said hurriedly. "I like you. I like you a lot. But that's also the issue. I don't want to force you into anything that you don't want."

"Well, if anything..." Cosmo blushed, "I was the one that forced that kiss..." She then backed away a little bit. "Did... did I do something wrong?"

"I honestly didn't mind it," Tails smiled. "But it just took me by surprise."

"I can tell," Cosmo said, looking around at the fox's tails and noticing them spinning quickly. "What's with those things?"

"Oh," Tails said, turning to see the offending appendages. "They often start spinning like that when I get excited." He blushed. "Do they bother you?"

Cosmo shook her head. "Of course not. It's so adorable, honestly. Like you."

Tails' blushing only increased, and his tails began spinning faster to the point where he felt his body weight shift. He looked down to see his feet raising off the ground slightly, just to the point where his toes, and the tips of his shoes, were still on the ground.

Before he could bring himself down, Cosmo walked over and lightly grabbed his arm, helping him do so. "What was that about?" she asked.

"I... have no clue..." Tails said. "Felt cool, though."

Cosmo smiled. "Well, know that you're grounded, let's go and grab our food."

Tails nodded, and offered his hand for her to take. She did so with a cheery smile, and the two walked up to the restaurant, Tails having broken from the hand holding to open the door for her, which she giggled at.

"You truly are a gentleman," she said as he followed behind.

"Got anything in mind for food?" he asked.

"Just a couple of ribs and a small order of fries," said Cosmo. "I don't know how much time I have before my lunch break is over."

"Good thinking," Tails replied. "Go find a seat, and I'll be right with you."

Cosmo nodded, kissing his cheek before turning to walk away. Tails blushed briefly before turning back to the counter, seeing Mr. Wong smile at him. "Hello there, Tails!" he said cheerfully.

"Hey," Tails replied. "How are you today?"

"I'm fine, young man," Wong smiled. "Yourself?"

"Not too bad," Tails shrugged.

"I can see that you have a date with you," Wong smiled. "So, what can I get for you?"

"You have an easy job today," Tails said. "Just a couple of ribs each and small fries for us both."

"That does make my job easier," Wong replied. He turned to the kitchen to call out the order in question before turning back to Tails. "Say, doesn't that girl usually come with a couple of mongooses?"

"Usually," the fox nodded. "But I'm accompanying her today."

"That's a big word for dating," Wong said quietly. "But she's a nice girl."

"You've talked to her before?"

"Rarely, but yes," the owner nodded. "She's not here long because of her lunch hours often being short."

"Yeah, that kinda sucks," Tails shrugged. "But what can you do? She's busy behind that desk, man."

"She is indeed. She tells me about her work whenever we talk," Wong said. He then turned to one of his workers handing him the containers with the order in question, and thanked them before turning to Tails. "Well, here's your food. Please enjoy."

"Don't I always?" Tails winked, reaching into his wallet to pay. "Thank you very much."

He then picked up the containers, turning and looking around for Cosmo. He found her sat at the booth at the back of the shop, and he shook his head slightly as he walked over to the table, setting the food down.

"For someone worried about missing work," Tails said, "you'd think you'd be sat closer to the front door."

"It's nice back here," Cosmo said. "It's peaceful."

"I've never sat back here before," Tails admitted. "Usually, me and my friends sit near the middle. We still get a cool view of the outside, though."

The green girl nodded and smiled. "So... you never brought a date here before?"

"I've never taken any dates anywhere," Tails said, his head looking down at his shoes. "Like, ever..."

"Well, you certainly know how to flatter a lady," Cosmo lightly teased as they both opened their containers.

The yellow fox chuckled. "Not bad for a first timer, huh?"

"Not bad at all," Cosmo replied. "Say, that kiss..."

"What about it?" Tails wondered. "Besides it being rather lovely."

Cosmo blushed. "Was that your first kiss?"

Tails shook his head. "Nope. But it was probably my favourite."

"When was your first?" Cosmo asked.

"At my first high school prom," Tails said. "It was so awkward. I was fifteen, and had this really tacky looking white suit. I looked like a magician or something."

"How bad was it?" the green girl asked.

"Oh, we're talking the whole shebang," Tails said. "It had gloves, a cane, a top hat, and long, flowing coattails. My own tails apparently weren't good enough."

"Did you perform any tricks?" asked Cosmo, teasing slightly.

"I did make one dude laugh so hard that he pissed himself a little bit," Tails chuckled, remembering.

"How'd the rest of the date go?"

"Pretty well," Tails said. "She thought that I was brave for wearing it, and told me not to care much of what they thought. Which helped a little bit, because there was a lot of laughing there."

"You were only fifteen," said Sally.

"Yeah, but so was everyone else there," Tails defended. "That didn't stop them from anything. They bullied me a lot, and not just because of the suit."

"Oh," Cosmo simply said, knowing the reason why.

"And not just because of the tails, either," the yellow fox added on.

"Oh?" Cosmo said, curious.

"I was always the short kid, you know?" Tails shrugged, eating more of his food. "I was seen as weak and pathetic. I was always picked last, and I never understood why. Most of those ass-holes that I went to school with probably wouldn't have careers if I didn't do their tests for them."

"Did you ever get your own back on any of them?" Cosmo asked.

"My parents raised me to not fight back with my fists, but with my brain," Tails said. "I did actually manage to get some of them back."

"What happened?" Cosmo asked, now curious.

"I got a bunch of jocks to meet at our school's library, and told them of a secret book that had a dirty magazine hidden inside," Tails said. "So, they looked for it, and they found it soon enough."

"Then what happened?" asked the plant girl.

"One of them used their library card to take it out with them, using the basis that it was a normal book. Only trouble is, once they opened it when they left the library, all the pages fell out. Hidden in those pages was a small tape with a prerecorded voice message from me." Tails then started laughing. "As they were distracted listening to it, I threw them what they thought was the actual magazine."

"Was it?" Cosmo asked.

"Nope. It was just the front cover. I hid another message inside, this one of a pair of men grunting," Tails laughed. "I got the audio from my dad and a friend of his doing mechanical work on a vehicle."

Cosmo burst out laughing. "Are you serious?"

Tails snorted. "Yeah! Soon after, the librarian caught them out, and they got suspended for a week!" He then smiled more as he started to calm down. "That was a good day."

"So, what'd you stuff the dirty magazine with?" asked Cosmo.

"Just a textbook of mine," Tails shrugged. "I got it back soon after."

"So, where'd you get the magazine cover?" asked Cosmo.

"I found it in some other jock's locker. I remember his combination from when he needed some homework done and he was out with his buddies. I just stole the cover from there."

"Did he get in trouble too?"

"Yep," Tails nodded. "Not as much as everyone else, but he did get a warning."

Cosmo shook her head. "I don't get it."

"Get what?"

She smiled. "You're worried about whether or not you should kiss me, and you played a revenge prank involving a dirty magazine."

"It was the best that I could think of at the time," shrugged Tails.

"Did you get into trouble for it?"

The fox shook his head. "Not with the school, or my parents. In fact, they laughed and we celebrated with some ice-cream that night."

"The school or your parents?" asked Cosmo, giggling.

"My parents," Tails said. "Although the next day, the lunch lady did give me free dessert. It wasn't ice-cream, though. It was a nice apple crumble."

"With custard?" the plant girl asked.

"Is there any other way to eat a crumble?"

Cosmo laughed, and as Tails joined, he took in her laughter. It was warm and happy, and Tails enjoyed listening to it. It was much different from her cute giggling, which seemed somewhat flirty. Her laugh was a symphonic masterpiece to him, and he liked the sound of it.

Cosmo noticed the fox deep in thought. "What's wrong?"

"I was just thinking about your laugh," Tails said, blushing a bit. "I like it."

It was Cosmo's turn to blush. "Really?"

"Really," Tails nodded.

She smiled. "Thank you..." She waved her hands in front of her face. "See? Now I'm the one getting nervous."

Tails smiled. "Sorry about that. We'd better eat up, though. You need to get back to work soon."

Cosmo nodded, and the two remained silent as they went through the rest of their food. They did it at an even pace, but having to go a bit faster due to Cosmo needing to be back at work.

Soon, the two had finished, stopping to thank the owner on their way out before heading straight for the car. The two got in as Cosmo unlocked it, and she pulled out of the parking lot and headed straight for the station.

Along the way, Tails managed to surreptitiously pull a mint from his pocket and place it into his mouth. Cosmo didn't talk much on the way back, which helped him since he was afraid that he may have been caught out otherwise. Sure, Cosmo knew that he had them, but there was a reason as to why he kept quiet about it on the way back.

The two had soon made it back to the station, and Tails spoke. "You were pretty quiet on the way back," he said.

"Yeah..." Cosmo nodded. "I guess that I finally let the nerves get to me after we finished lunch."

"Would you say that you're feeling better now that you're back at work?" Tails asked.

"A little bit," Cosmo nodded again, more hesitantly. "But mostly, I'm feeling calmer around you."

"Good," Tails nodded. "So, I guess I'll see you in a few days."

Before he could leave, he felt a tug at his arm. Instead of trying to resist, he turned around and put his hands on Cosmo's waist, leaning in to kiss her. She was slightly surprised at this, considering that she went to initiate the kiss, but went along with it nonetheless, melting into it with a soft moan.

The kiss was a little bit longer than their earlier exchange in the parking lot of Jade Mountain. It was a much more passionate exchange, the kind of kiss that Tails needed to give to Cosmo to tell her that he'd be fine over the next few days.

After it broke, Cosmo smiled. "I guess I'll see you in a little while..." she blushed.

"Weren't expecting it?" Tails asked.

Cosmo shook her head. "No. Although your breath smelled way better this time."

"I was prepared this time," Tails said, shaking his pocket with the mints in it. "I'll see you around."

"You too," she smiled. "And be careful at the new place."

"I'm the most careful of the four of us," Tails laughed as he walked away, reaching for his phone. He called a taxi, and soon one had arrived. Before he got in, he turned to see Cosmo waving goodbye to him and the fox smiled and did the same before getting into the car.

Tails gave his address to the driver, and was taken back home soon after. The entire time there, he couldn't help the smile on his face. The reason for that smile was primarily for Cosmo, and also because he was looking forward to being a freelancer.

 **Present time, with Sonic and Amy...**

"And here you are," the taxi driver said.

"Thanks so much," Sonic said, paying the driver, even giving some extra. "That's for playing some good music."

"Thank you," the driver smiled. "Take care. When did you want me to pick you back up?"

"You'll find out when your company gets another call," said Sonic. "Sorry for being so vague, but I don't know when that will be."

"It's cool," the driver said. "See you later."

And with that, the driver sped off, and Sonic turned to Amy. "So..."

"So..." Amy smiled.

"Are you ready to get some lunch?"

Amy nodded. "I've been wanting to try these ribs out for a while now."

"Then let us now waste any more time, milady." Sonic offered his arm, and Amy slipped a hand through it, giggling at the terrible knightly accent that he put on.

The two headed for the Jade Mountain. Since they were dropped off at the foot of the parking lot instead of at a parking space, the walk was a little bit longer than Sonic had anticipated, but they made it soon enough.

Sonic opened the door, allowing Amy to enter first, making her smile. "And they say that chivalry is dead."

"Eh, I just wanted to watch you from behind as you walk," Sonic winked, letting Amy know that he was joking.

The pink hedgehog mock gasped before giggling. "Let's just grab our food, you pervert."

Sonic nodded and guided Amy to the front counter. "The suggestions are up on the board up there," Sonic said, pointing.

Amy looked up and gasped. "Whoa... so many combinations..."

Mr. Wong smiled and walked up. "Ah, yet another friendly customer bringing a female to my establishment. Although this female is one I've not seen before."

Sonic smiled at the Asian man. "Wong, this is Amy. She's my date today, and she's rather interesting in procuring some of your legendary ribs."

"Not mine specifically, I hope," Wong smirked. "I kind of need mine." He then turned to Amy. "See anything that takes your fancy?"

Amy looked around for a bit more, then turned to face the owner. "Well, Sonic did recommend the sweet and sour sauce ribs, so I guess I'll try those?"

"They're very much our speciality," Wong smiled. "What about you, Sonic?"

"The same, please," the blue hedgehog replied. "And could I have a drink too? Lemonade, if you have it."

"Sure," Wong nodded, turning back to Amy. "Would you like a drink as well?"

"I've got some coffee with me," Amy smiled.

"All right, I'll get right on it," Wong smiled. He quickly turned around to call the order out to the cooks in the kitchen before turning back to the hedgehogs. "Will you be taking it with you or would you like it brought over?"

"Brought over," Sonic said, reaching for his wallet.

"I'll find us a seat," Amy smiled.

As the pink hedgehog walked off to find a seat, Wong looked at Sonic. "No fizzy drinks for her?" he asked.

"Probably not a good idea," said Sonic as he pulled out the money to pay. "She's got a heart condition, so fizzy drinks aren't a great option, neither is caffeine." He then turned to see Amy pulling out her thermos.

"I'm assuming that her coffee is decaf," said Wong, taking the cash.

Sonic shrugged. "I'll go ask her."

He then walked over to Amy, seeing her drinking carefully from her thermos before checking through her bag. She made sure that she still had her pills, because as Sonic said to the cab driver earlier, there was no way of knowing when they'd be taken back home.

"So... coffee..." Sonic said.

"It's decaf," said Amy. "Don't worry; I did all my research on my heart condition. I know that anything with even the slightest hint of caffeine can be bad for me."

"Ah," Sonic nodded. "I won't lie, I was a little bit worried there."

"I'll be fine," Amy giggled. "I took my afternoon pills earlier, so all that's left are the night ones."

"I've been meaning to ask," Sonic started, "what did you mean by what you told me the other day? About it getting better as you got older?"

"Well, I've had to take less pills for one thing," Amy said. "Another reason is that I've learned more from my mistakes. I remember once I ate a lot of chocolate after a bad breakup and almost went into shock because of that. Luckily, Rosy saved me."

"She knew what to do?" Sonic asked. "I mean, she seems smart, but she's not exactly a trained medical professional."

Amy giggled. "I'm going to tell her that you said that."

"Aw... now I'm in trouble..." Sonic pouted.

Amy smiled disarmingly, and was about to speak again when one of the waiters came around with their food. As ordered, it was sweet and sour ribs with extra sauce on the house, and Sonic had his bottle of lemonade.

"Thank you," both hedgehogs said in unison, making them both laugh.

"Please enjoy," said the waiter, smiling as he walked off.

"So, how did Rosy save you?" Sonic asked.

"By that point, she'd known enough about my heart condition just from me talking about it," Amy said. "I hadn't taken any pills that day, so when I went into shock, she grabbed my pills and a bottle of water and... well, she pretty much saved my life that day."

"Wow," Sonic said, his eyes wide. "So, if you get in trouble with it again, Rosy's the only other person who can help you?"

"Her and Vanilla," Amy said.

"Vanilla?" Sonic asked. "The pharmacist?"

"You know her?" Amy smiled.

"Yeah," Sonic laughed. "She's a family friend of the Prower's. We all call her aunt Vanilla."

"So, I'm guessing you've met Cream as well?" the pink hedgehog asked.

"Yep," Sonic said. "She and Tails are cousins. She's... what, six or seven now?"

"So, what does Tails' family do?" Amy asked.

"His parents own a mechanical shop called the Wrench Turner," Sonic said. "It's also pretty much Tails' home."

"So, he got all of his knowledge from his parents?" Amy asked.

"For the most part," Sonic nodded. "He's actually a lot smarter, I think. Sure, his dad's a dab hand with the underside of a car, and his mum isn't half bad either. But Tails? He's definitely ahead of the curve. I'm glad that his parents see that in him."

"It would be cool to meet him in person one day," smiled Amy. "So, shall we eat now?"

"I don't see why not," Sonic smiled.

The two then opened up their containers of food, and instead of chowing down, Sonic waited to gauge Amy's reaction. Since she was so focused on getting the food form the container, she didn't notice Sonic waiting for her.

Once she had unveiled one of the ribs, she shrugged and bit into it, taking some of the meat off of it. She chewed it for a while before smiling. She took another bite, this one smaller, and soon chewed up the food enough to swallow it down.

"That tastes amazing!" Amy smiled. "You were right."

"Do I seem like the kind of guy who'd steer you wrong?" Sonic smirked.

"I never doubted you for a moment," Amy giggled. "But, damn! I wasn't expecting them to be this good!"

"It's the sauce," Sonic shrugged. "There's just something about it."

Amy nodded. "It's a good mix of sweet and sour, but there's not too much of either. It's well-balanced, and even without it, the rib would still taste as great."

Sonic smiled. "I'm honestly glad that you're liking it so much."

The pink hedgehog nodded again. "If you're lucky, I might be liking it again with you soon." She then hung her head slightly. "That could have been phrased way better..."

"It sounded pretty good to me," Sonic winked.

Amy smiled. "That aside, it's just been nice to be here with you. I'm having a lot of fun."

Sonic smiled back. "Me too. I just wish that the circumstances were better."

Amy reached her sauce-free hand over to touch Sonic's own sauce-free hand. "Listen, I know that it's not easy. But you can't expect to get it right with your first try. I have faith that you're going to do your best. Even if you fail, at least you can say that you tried."

Sonic smiled and, using his hand, pulled hers up to his lips to kiss it gently. "Thank you. You know, you're pretty smart for a kindergarten teacher."

Amy shrugged. "Toddlers are a lot easier to be around than teenagers. Sure, they're more energetic, but it's nice to not have some mopey teen complaining about the world around them."

"You've taught teens before?" Sonic asked.

"Only on rare occasions," Amy said. "Most of my stories of the older classes come from the other teachers."

Sonic shook his head as he put Amy's hand down. "I swear, school is not the best thing for people going through puberty. Having to worry about your education is enough, but combine that with acne, hair growing in strange places, and your voice going squeaky? That's a whole new level of awkward."

"Speaking of hair," Amy smiled, "I noticed your rocking some face fuzz."

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "Eh, it's just some scruff. Do you like it?"

Amy blushed a bit. "It's honestly kinda cute."

Sonic chuckled. "Thanks. I was shooting for kinda cute."

"Well, you nailed it," Amy winked. "Now, hurry up and eat. You haven't touched your food yet, and you recommended this place to me."

Sonic laughed, grabbing another rib and chewing into it before speaking. "Okay, okay! But only if I'm allowed dessert later."

"Does this place do dessert?" Amy asked.

"Not to my knowledge," Sonic said. "But I do have some ice-cream back at home. I was planning to cry as I ate it in case this date went wrong or if you stood me up."

"What flavour is it?" Amy asked.

"Chocolate," Sonic answered.

"Ah. The perfect comfort ice-cream."

"Has it happened to you before?" Sonic asked.

"I've had some breakups, but nothing that serious," Amy teased lightly. "Saying that, Rosy usually has a new man every week. I swear, we'd pay off our bills easier if I weren't constantly buying that woman chocolate chip in a tub..."

"From what I get from her, she doesn't seem like the type to settle down and have a couple of baby pink hedgehogs," Sonic said. "I don't understand how you two are twins. Besides, you know, being born around the same time and looking the same and such."

Amy giggled. "Well, she might be a lot different to me in some ways. Like how she dresses, the fact that her job is at night, and if she'll ever find a good enough man to be with for the rest of her life. But one thing that I love about her is how brave she is for helping me. She's never doubted me, and even after all of the problems with my heart, she still stands by me."

Sonic smiled. "I can see that in you. I can see that bravery. I guess that it passed down from your mother, huh?"

"Do you think that I was brave on that night that you found me?" Amy said. "Because I was scared shitless for most of what happened..."

"So would most people have been," said Sonic. "You kept your head, though. You knew how bad the situation was, and you were scared, sure. But you were rightfully scared. And yet, you're brave for how you handled the situation, despite your hopefully limited experience of being kidnapped."

Amy giggled. "Yeah. That's a first that I don't want to revisit any time soon." She then plucked up another rib. "But this? This is a first that I'm quite enjoying."

"Well, I'll be more than happy to bring you back here whenever my future schedule allows it," Sonic said.

"It's more than just the ribs, although they do taste fantastic," Amy smirked. "I mean, the company. Like I said earlier, it's a lot of fun being here with you. I'm having a good time... thank you, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "It's no problem."

The two then laughed a bit before continuing to eat their food in silence. Soon, both were finished, and Sonic stood up and picked up the containers, chucking them in a nearby trash bin before turning to Mr. Wong.

"Thanks for the food, man," Sonic smiled.

"No problem," the owner replied, looking at Amy. "I trust that you're going to try and visit here more?"

"I live pretty far away, but I'll try to," Amy smiled. "I think my sister might like this place."

"Would you like a spare one to take back home for her?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Amy said. "It's no worry."

"I don't mind," Sonic shrugged.

Amy was about to reply when Wong interrupted. "It'll be on the house."

Sonic grinned at the elderly man. "You sure about that?"

"You're a good customer, and you've brought in a potential regular on a date," Wong shrugged. "I'm more than happy to do it." He then turned to Amy. "What type would she like?"

"Hmm... just get her the sweet and sour sauce ribs, I guess," Amy said.

Wong nodded and turn to call the order out to the kitchen. It didn't take long for said order to be delivered to the counter, and Amy took the container from the counter, holding it in her hands carefully.

"I don't have room in my bag for this," Amy said.

"I'll hang on to it," Sonic replied. "You just worry about calling us up another taxi."

"Pushy," Amy winked, then turning to Wong. "Thank you so much."

"Hey, if it gets me more customers, I'm all for it," the Asian man laughed. "Take care, you two."

Sonic and Amy both waved with another spoken farewell before heading out of the restaurant. They walked to the bottom of the parking lot, with Amy having her phone out to call up a cab during the walk.

"It'll be here in a little bit," Amy said. "Fortunately, the nearest one's not far away."

"That is rather fortunate," Sonic smiled. "Almost to the point of convenient."

The pink hedgehog giggled. "Thank you for the date, Sonic."

"Ah, don't thank me yet," the blue hedgehog replied. "Let's get you home in one piece, then you can thank me."

"You're not even a cop or freelancer, and you're still looking after me?" Amy smiled. "How could I ever repay you?"

"Well, ma'am," Sonic started, putting on an authoritative voice, "you could start by keeping yourself out of trouble, helping your community, eating your greens, and looking both ways when crossing the street. That's the Green Hill way."

Amy burst out laughing, which Sonic soon joined. The two soon found themselves looking at each other through the laughter, and Amy stepped forward. Soon, the laughter started to die down.

"I can think of another way..." Amy said, her tone of voice low.

Sonic grabbed her hand as it moved up to his cheek. "You know, I won't make you do anything you don't want to."

"But I want to..." Amy smiled.

Sonic chuckled. "Good."

Without another word, he leaned forward and kissed Amy softly. She moaned and melted into it, returning fire with her own lips and reaching a hand up to rest against Sonic's cheek, smiling as her touch was uninterrupted the second time.

Sonic's own hands reached down to grab Amy's waist, and he pushed his tongue against her lips a bit. She allowed it, and their moans increased as they shared their kiss, their hands wandering more, with Amy brushing her hand through Sonic's quills.

Soon, the pair had stopped, and Sonic was the first to speak. "Damn..."

"That's a hell of another way to repay you, huh?" Amy giggled.

"Damn right," Sonic said. "Sorry for my language, but... damn..."

"My thoughts exactly," Amy giggled, turning her head. "The taxi's here."

Sonic turned to see the vehicle in question pull up next to them, opening the door for the two hedgehogs. "You guys called?"

"We did indeed," said Sonic.

"Hop in."

The two hedgehogs did, and gave their addresses. Sonic said to get Amy home first, for two reasons; one, since she lived further away, it'd be easier to get her home first, and two; so that he could keep his promise of getting her home safely.

They soon reached the pink hedgehog's home, and Sonic received a kiss on the cheek before Amy left the car. Sonic handed her the container with the ribs for Rosy, and she giggled a thanks before leaving and going into her house safely.

With that out of the way, the next destination was for Sonic's own house. Despite some small talk, Sonic and the driver didn't talk much. After a long drive, they made it to the blue hedgehog's house, and Sonic paid the cabby off for both himself and Amy.

Sonic left the car and headed for his front door as the cab sped off to wherever was next, and the blue hedgehog used the spare key under the welcome mat to open up his door. As he did, he took note that it was getting late.

"Ah, there he is!" said Sonia.

"How was the date?" asked Manic.

"It was pretty good," Sonic smiled, unable to wipe the smile from his face.

"You totally kissed her, didn't you?" Sonia giggled.

"A little bit..." Sonic shrugged.

"Did you at least bring back some ribs?" Manic asked.

"What am I, a delivery boy?" Sonic said. "No, I didn't. Sorry. Looks like you'll have to try making your own food up."

Manic shrugged. "Eh, I tried."

"Anyway, I'm going to bed," Sonic said. "It's getting late, and I should get to sleep early for my new job."

"Ah, I almost forgot about that," said his green hedgehog brother.

Sonic shook his head. "I'll see you both tomorrow. Night."

"Night," his siblings said. Sonia then turned to Manic. "He totally kissed her."

"Oh, yeah," Manic nodded. "Let's leave him to get some sleep, though. We can pester him about it when he's not so busy sleeping."

Sonia chuckled, and the two went to the living room. As they did, Sonic laughed lowly at his siblings' jokes whilst climbing into bed, deciding that an early night was the best option for him for now.

"Not a bad day, all things considered," he said to himself. "Let's hope that tomorrow keeps the streak going."

And with that, he closed his emerald green eyes and went to sleep.

 **Meanwhile, back in Westopolis..."**

"Ah..." Nack said as he ate scrambled eggs. "To think, tomorrow is when everything truly begins for me." He took a sip of his decaf coffee. "Everything is falling into place."

"So, what is the plan?" asked one of the humans.

"What I expect it to be," Nack said. "I trust that Lara, Beau, and Manuel will use the money that I gave them to buy their respective products, then hopefully they'll push that product out to other reaches of Westopolis."

"And you trust them?" asked the other human.

"It is like I told you on the day of the deal," said Nack. "I do, because I know that they know that they shouldn't disappoint me. But they also know that I won't go after any of them directly unless I have to."

"It's rare to see crime so organised in this city," said the first human.

"Which is why I'm making the crime in this city organised," Nack said. "I want Westopolis to be more than a filthy corner filled with hookers, junkies, and psychos; I want it to be a corner with dignified hookers, junkies, and psychos."

"Can you dignify any of those three things?" the human asked.

"Of course I can," the purple weasel smiled. "Just look at the people that I made a deal with."

"Pardon me for saying, but Manuel doesn't seem the type to lead a bunch of psychos," said the other human.

"Exactly."

"So, why give him the gun running?"

"Because, out of anyone else in this city, he knows how guns work," Nack said. "And I'm not talking you pull the trigger and a bullet comes out. It's not so simple. Of course, I'm no expert, so I can't even explain it myself. I'm comfortable with the method of pull trigger, kill person."

"He's the only one with children," said the first human. "Would he really go this low to protect them?"

"You should have seen what he did to protect them that landed him in prison," said Nack. "He killed a rather eager teenage boy for trying to force themselves onto one of his daughters. I might deal with hookers, junkies, and psychos. But rape? That's nothing to be too proud of. It's too messy and too fucked up, even for me."

"What about the others two?" asked the second human.

"Lara was caught selling her body, and Beau was caught buying cocaine and meth." Nack snorted a laugh. "More specifically, he mixed the two up."

"He's smart enough to do that?"

"It was an accidental mixing," said Nack. "He almost overdosed. The next thing that he knew, he was locked up. He's just a pusher, nothing more. He gets the drugs around, and he's more than okay to take them. Same goes with Lara and Manuel; they can do whatever they wish, as long as they keep it balanced and remember why they're working for me. They do still owe me, after all. If they do their jobs, and do them right, then all is well. If not... well, not even the bad guys can stay friends forever."

The humans simply nodded, and Nack soon finished eating his food and drank all of his coffee. When he was done, he stood up and quickly went about putting the dishes in the kitchen's dishwasher before heading for the main office.

"I'd best get some rest," he said. "Tomorrow is a big day, boys. Let's make it count."

With that, he closed his main office door and stripped to his underwear before getting under the covers. He turned off the lamp next to his bed and went to sleep, unable to keep his one-fanged smile off of his face.

* * *

 **And that's it for another one! I know that it took me a while, but I think I've found my flow again. I'm doing less thinking... okay, less than usual, and I've just been feeling it out more. There's still a fair chunk of story to go. Before I end this off, I want to know: Do you guys like how I'm writing Nack as a villain? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	16. Back To Square One

The next morning, Sonic woke up in his bed, turning to see his alarm blaring at 6:30 am. He tiredly reached over to turn it off before sitting up in bed and yawning, reaching his arms out to stretch as he balled his fists, then wiping his eyes.

He decided not to bother with a morning shower, instead just choosing to brush his teeth before changing out of his clothes. He slipped on a pair of grey and white striped boxers, some black socks, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a yellow tank top with a cool neon green computerised design on the chest of it, before slipping on some red trainers.

After he was dressed, he went downstairs, taking his clothes from yesterday with him and placing them in the washing machine. He smiled at the pile of Manic and Sonia's clothes, and placed them into the machine as well before providing some detergent to go with the clothes, turning on the machine not long after.

"Time for breakfast..." he said to himself, moving over to the fridge.

He grabbed the large bottle of milk from the fridge before searching through the cupboards, grabbing a box of chocolate cereal from there. He grabbed a bowl and a spoon, and went about making his breakfast.

He poured the cereal in first, but before adding the milk, he grabbed a thermos from the cupboard, placing it on the side next to the kettle before checking said kettle for how much water was in it. There was enough for a drink, so he turned it on whilst he set up his warm beverage.

As the kettle boiled, he finished making his cereal up, putting both the box and the bottle away in their respective places before eating his cereal where he was, not bothering to sit down before the kettle had boiled.

It soon finished heating up, and Sonic was just finishing his cereal. As soon as he put his bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, he heard slow footsteps from behind him, followed by a drowsy voice.

"Dude... could you keep it down?" Manic asked, wearing a pair of green pyjamas.

"I think that was just the kettle," Sonic said. "I wasn't making that much noise, was I?"

Manic looked wearily over to the kettle. "Damn, that thing is noisy..." He then rubbed some sleep out of his eyes. "So, I see that you're up bright and early."

"Early yes, bright no," Sonic replied. "Haven't had any coffee yet. You want some?"

Manic shook his head. "It's, like, the middle of the night, dude."

"It's 6:40," Sonic replied, gesturing to the clock on the microwave.

"My point still stands," Manic smiled. "So, you're heading off to your new base today, right?"

"Yup," Sonic said, making his coffee as he kept speaking. "All four of us get our own place and a new job. I probably won't be back at home much because of that. We never know when we'll be needed."

Manic nodded, although Sonic couldn't see it since he was focused on making his drink. "I get it. And I can't deny that it'll suck not having you around as much, but... you're moving on to better things, man. I know it."

"Thanks," Sonic smiled, finishing up making his drink and taking a quick sip. "Hot, but still good." He looked past Manic. "Sonia still asleep?"

"She's always been a heavy sleeper," Manic said.

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "How she survives through your snoring of a nighttime is beyond me."

"At least I don't wet the bed," the green hedgehog brother laughed.

"That was when I was six, dude. It was a nerve wracking time," the blue hedgehog brother replied, laughing also.

"No need to get pissy," Manic shrugged, unable to hide the smirk at his pun. "Sorry. Couldn't help it."

"You could, but you just chose not to," Sonic said. "Knuckles is the same sometimes."

"Speaking of which, is he picking you up?" Manic asked.

"He is indeed," Sonic nodded. "He should be here soon."

Manic nodded. "Well, before I go back to sleep, I just wanted to wish you good luck out there."

Sonic smiled and walked over to his brother. "Thanks, man."

"Sonia says it too," Manic chuckled.

Sonic nodded. "I know. Give her a hug for me when she's up?"

"Will do," Manic said. "Bring it in."

The blue hedgehog chuckled and reached over to hug his brother, the two chuckling and sharing an embrace together. They both broke from the hug, and Sonic went over to his thermos, being the first to speak.

"I'll see you... whenever I next see you," he said.

"Yeah," Manic nodded, yawning. "Well, I'd best get back to sleep. Take care."

"Night," Sonic called, teasing his brother as he walked away.

Manic replied by waving him off, and Sonic soon got a text on his phone, seeing it was from Knuckles. "You up?" it asked.

"Yeah. Got my coffee ready," Sonic typed back.

"Well, I've got Shadow and am on my way to get Tails," Knuckles replied. "I should probably be there around 7:00."

"Cool," Sonic typed. "See you when you get here."

"In a bit, bro."

Sonic put his phone back in his pocket before looking outside the window. Despite it being early morning, he shrugged to himself and went to grab his headphones from his bedroom quickly.

"Maybe a quick jog around will keep me fresh for when the guys get here," he said to himself.

He grabbed a grey hoodie and slipped it on before leaving his house. As he left, he turned back to see the building, sighing a bit to himself at how much he'd miss seeing his family with his new job.

"Can't dwell on that," Sonic said, shaking his head. "Time for a few laps around the block."

 **Meanwhile, at the Wrench Turner...**

Tails was already awake, and had just finished showering before changing into his own clothes. He went for a white t-shirt over a grey long sleeved shirt, blue jean shorts, some white socks, and a pair of dark orange sneakers.

He went downstairs to see his parents in the kitchen at the back of the shop, and smiled as he saw his breakfast of beans on toast, with some orange juice. His parents had the same, with the exception of his father Amadeus having a coffee instead of juice.

"So, you looking forward to your first day as a freelancer, my boy?" Amadeus smiled.

"Yeah," Tails replied. "It's honestly kind of making me nervous, but the more that I think about it, the less that I worry."

Rosemary smiled. "Well, you are going to be with your friends. Shadow isn't the most talkative from what we know, but Sonic seems like a good egg."

Tails chuckled. "He can be when he wants to be."

"And Knuckles... I've always liked him," Amadeus chuckled. "Not the brightest bulb, but he's strong."

"I would say that he'd be mad at that," Tails started, "but even he knows about it. And plus, you've met him, so it's cool that you like him."

"Shadow might take some getting used to..." Rosemary trailed off.

Tails nodded. "I know. He's quiet and reserved, but once he starts talking, he's actually not as bad as he likes to make himself out to be."

"Speaking of your friends," Amadeus said, "won't they be here soon?"

The yellow fox son nodded, eating some of his food. "Yeah. Knuckles usually picks up Shadow first since he lives the furthest away from the station, then he picks me up on the way to Sonic's."

"Smart way of doing it," his father replied. "Why does Shadow live so far away, though?"

"Well, he lives with Maria," said Tails, shrugging. "They take care of each other, and I think that they live far away since they're both really socially awkward."

"You've met Maria?" Rosemary asks.

Tails nodded. "Yeah. She's a nice person, despite shaking like a leaf when she's around people she doesn't know."

"Speaking of women," Amadeus said, "how'd things go yesterday with Cosmo?"

Rosemary elbowed her husband in the side. "You said that you wouldn't bring that up..." she whispered.

Tails hung his head a bit as he kept eating. He finished the bit in in his mouth before speaking. "It's fine. It went really well, actually."

"You went to Jade Mountain, right?" Rosemary asked.

Tails nodded. "Yep. She tried the sweet and sour ribs there, and pretty much fell in love with them."

"Anything else?" Amadeus asked.

"Like what?" Tails shot back.

"Did you two... you know..."

The young yellow fox shook his head with a sigh. "I'm 20 years old, dad. I'm old enough for 'you know'. If you must know, we didn't get to that stage, which I'm okay with. And even if I did, and as much as I love you both, I wouldn't just parade that around. That would be disrespectful to Cosmo, and I really want things to work with her."

"Ah, that's nice," Rosemary said.

"Sorry for pushing," Amadeus said. "But it's nice to hear that you had a wonderful time."

Tails chuckled. "She did make the first move, though. She kissed me."

"When?" asked his mother, unable to hide her curiosity.

"Just after getting out of the car to get into the restaurant," Tails replied. "And then a second time when we got back to the station, before I called up the taxi to bring me back here."

"Aw, that's so cute!" Rosemary smiled.

Amadeus reached over to stroke Tails' hair. "That's my boy!" He then paused. "Did she make the second move too, by the way?"

"She tried to, but I beat her to it," Tails chuckled, checking his watch. "Ooh... I'd better finish fast. Knuckles is going to be here any minute now."

His parents both nodded, but his mother couldn't stop her enthusiasm from gushing over. "I'm just so glad that you have a girl! Your eyes light up when you talk about her!"

Tails blushed in reply, and kept eating his food, as did his parents. Soon, they'd all finished up, and Tails was just about to pick the plates up when he heard a car honking outside. He turned to look at his parents, and his father stood up.

"I'll take care of them," said Amadeus, taking the plates from his son. "You just go on out there and do your job. Well, your new job, I guess."

"I will," Tails smiled. He then reached over to hug his dad before his mum also joined in. "I'm going to miss you guys..."

"We'll miss you too," Rosemary said, kissing Tails on his forehead. "And please, try not to get into another car crash."

"That wasn't our fault last time!" Tails defended, grabbing a coat as he left, just in case. "I'll see you guys when I see you! I love you!"

"We love you too!" they both replied.

"I'm worried already..." Rosemary said.

"He just barely closed the door when you said that," Amadeus chuckled, placing the dishes into the washer.

"Still, he's our little boy... and he's out saving the world and getting hurt in the process..."

Amadeus rested a gentle, but firm, hand on her shoulder. "Sweetie, we talked about this. You said that, even knowing this, that you'd be fine with it. He's old enough to make his own decisions now."

Rosemary nodded, kissing her husband's hand. "I know. But I'm still allowed to worry, right?"

"We're parents," Amadeus chuckled. "It's only natural for us to worry. He'll be fine, Rose. Trust me."

Rosemary nodded. "Well, let's get ourselves ready for work."

"Good thing we live at our job," Amadeus laughed.

Outside, Tails waved at his friends, hopping into the back seat as Shadow had taken the front with Knuckles. Shadow wore a black button up t-shirt with faint white stripes, and that shirt was opened up over a dark brown tank top. Long grey shorts and black boots finished the look. Knuckles wore a dark blue v-neck t-shirt with a ninja sword design on the torso, followed with blue jeans and red and green patterned sneakers.

"Ah, there he is," the red echidna smiled at the yellow fox.

"Nice of you guys to show up," Tails smiled as he put his seat-belt on. "You all ready to go?"

"Only one more person to grab," Knuckles replied.

"You still got all our stuff in the back of the car?" asked Tails.

"Yep," Knuckles nodded.

"Then let's not waste any more time," Tails said.

Knuckles nodded, pressing his foot down on the accelerator and heading for Sonic's house. Soon enough, they'd reached the house in question, and as they paused to look at the front door, they didn't see the blue hedgehog outside.

"He must be in the house," Tails shrugged.

Knuckles nodded, honking his horn. "Yo, blue boy! Come on, we're losing daylight!"

"It's 7:00 am, dude," Shadow pointed out.

The red echidna shrugged, and saw Sonic come out from around the left side of the house. "There you are! You come out from the back door or something?"

Sonic shook his head as he got closer. "Nah. I was just doing a few laps as I waited," he replied, getting into the back with Tails. "How are the parents?"

"They're pretty good," Tails smiled. "Although, they're pretty worried for me."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "Makes sense. So, what's the plan?"

"We head to the station," Shadow said. "Since we have no clue where our new base is, we'll need to take a trip over there to get our new address."

"That reminds me," Knuckles said, reaching into his pockets, "everyone got their new cards?" The other three pulled theirs out, and the red echidna smiled. "Good."

"To the station!" said Tails.

 **At the Green Hill Police Department...**

Avery was talking with Simian in the meeting room. Ash was also there, the remote in his hands as ever, ready to press the buttons to bring up new parts of his presentation as the bear and the gorilla talked.

Also there was Rotor, whom Avery spoke to directly. "So, what did you find out about the bodies?"

The walrus sighed. "There was some traces of Fokus in them, without a doubt, but they're very faint. It's not enough to be a good lead to anything that Nack is doing."

"Did you find out anything new about the drug?" asked Simian.

"Only that it could be a very influential one," shrugged Rotor. "Without actually testing it, I can't tell you. And I'm not willing to just inject it into anyone that I feel like just to get a good result."

"He's right," Ash nodded. "And we can never find video footage of Fokus users since it's still such a rare drug. People will go to strange places to hide their vices."

Avery shook his head. "I still can't believe what we found..."

"If there's any silver lining," said Rotor, "it's that there's a very slight possibility that people could overdose from the drug. Or at least, die some other way whilst it's in their system."

Avery nodded. "That's enough to make it dangerous. We need to make a play on Nack."

"Our best are working on it," said Simian. "But we've got nothing on where he could be."

"Maybe Westopolis?" Ash suggested.

"Why would Nack, a high-profile criminal, go to a shit-hole like Westopolis?" the gorilla asked.

"Like I said earlier, some people will go to strange places," Ash shrugged. "Maybe he wants that shit-hole to look less like shit."

"There was nothing else in Gear Steers either?" Avery asked.

"Sonic and his team shook down every part of that place and found what they could," Simian said. "It's all in evidence."

"And the dudes in the holding cells aren't speaking much on it, either," Ash added. "Shadow got the best that he could out of Bark, but all that proved is that Bark wasn't important enough to handle the more serious stuff."

"I think that Nack let him go the moment that he started shooting at his men," replied Rotor, standing up from his chair. "Anyway, I need to get back to my work. If I find anything new, I'll let you know."

Avery nodded, and as Rotor turned to leave, there was a call on the bear's speaker. "Hello?"

"Sonic and his team are here," said Cosmo.

"Ah, right. Tell them to wait outside," Avery said.

"They are outside," Cosmo said. "They're probably waiting on you."

"Got you. Over and out."

"What was that about?" Ash asked.

"I think I know," Avery smiled, turning to Simian. "Is everything all ready up there?"

"Antoine and Vector finished the final touches last night," the gorilla replied. "They stayed up pretty late working on it, but it couldn't be more perfect."

"Oh, yeah," Ash said, finally catching on. "We never did tell them where the new place was, or how they'd be getting there."

"Then let's go and show them," Avery said.

Rotor chuckled, waiting for the others to leave before he did. They all took the elevator down to the ground floor, and Rotor broke off from the others to head to the morgue as Avery, Simian, and Ash went to the front desk.

"Where exactly are they?" the mongoose asked.

Mina kissed him on the cheek before pointing her finger to look outside. At the side window of the double doors were Sonic and the others, all pretending to be cold and hungry, with Tails rolling on the floor and clutching his tails as a blanket to punctuate the act.

"God dammit," Avery shook his head, although unable to hide his smile. He then walked out to the four, going over to Tails and nudging him with his foot. "You know it's illegal to sleep on the grounds of a police station, right?"

"Y-You can't give a break to fellow officers?" Sonic asked with a mix of a slight whimper and cold stutter.

"Not when they're supposed to be at their new place," Avery said. "But then again, I imagine that's why you're here."

"Pretty much," Shadow said, abandoning the act. The others soon followed before the black and red hedgehog spoke again. "So, how do we get there?"

"It'd probably best for me to guide you in a car," Avery said. "Sort of like a convoy, I guess."

"Don't you have a station to run?" Sonic asked.

"They won't go to hell in the ten minutes that I'll be gone," Avery chuckled.

"It depends on how far we'll have to go," Sonic shrugged.

"Trust me, it won't be that bad," Avery said, getting into a police car. "All right, you guys get in your car and wait for me to pull out of the parking lot, then I'll take you to the new place."

"No problem," Knuckles said.

The red echidna and his friends went over to his car, pulling out of the lot and waiting patiently on the commander. Speaking of which, he was pulling out of the lot himself in the car he picked, and turned his car to the right as he left the lot.

Knuckles was confused, but shrugged and pushed on the accelerator to follow their now former commander. The bear kept turning right as they left properly from the station, and they kept following.

"I've never been past this way of the station," said Shadow.

"Yeah," Sonic agreed. "We normally come in from the left side, to the north of the city. I know, because I live closest to the station as it is."

"Well, let's see where this takes us," Knuckles shrugged as he kept driving.

The bear led them across the south side of the police station, and they followed him until they reached a new segment of the city. They kept going until they found the westernmost side of the city, and Avery slowed down.

"We must be close," Tails said.

Knuckles nodded, and turned his eyes back to Avery's car as it slowed. It then turned left through a small road. Knuckles followed closely behind, and soon found Avery stopping his car altogether before getting out. Shrugging, Knuckles killed the engine of his own car and got out with the others.

"Is this the place?" Sonic asked, looking around and not seeing much.

"Not fully," Avery replied, turning and walking through a small alleyway.

Curiously, the others followed behind, and thankfully they could all fit through the alleyway. They soon stopped as Avery walked forward ahead of them turning back to the others and gesturing to a building behind him.

"This is it," he said.

The four looked up at the building, seeing that it was similar in appearance to the Green Hill building with a high-tech looking design and a silver-chrome paint job on the outside of the building, as well as double doors to enter and exit through.

But that's where the similarities ended, as there was a sign on a wall to the right of the building that read out Freelancers Division in bold black lettering, and there was no sign of electric blue surges or stripes to compliment the building's look.

"Whoa..." Sonic smiled. "You outdid yourself."

"Wait until you get inside," Avery replied, going over to the right door that led into the building. He said his name, and the doors opened. "Voice activated entrances," he explained. "Only you four, and some of us back at the station, can get in or out."

"What about fingerprints and eyeball scanners?" Tails asked.

"They're there too, but you can enter through any of those ways," Avery said. "Also, the voice system is two ways, so you can talk to people inside and outside."

Sonic saw a small camera sliding out of the wall above Avery. "What about that thing? Another security measure?"

"One of many," Avery nodded. "The cameras are hidden everywhere, but this one only shows up when there's people close to the doors. It's a good way to sort the bad from the good."

"Well, what about the inside?" asked Tails.

"Let me show you," the Green Hill commissioner smiled back, entering through the doors. He kept them open for the young former officers, and all stepped through, looking around as the early daylight lit the front room of the building.

On the floor was a black carpet with a faded purple striped pattern, which appeared to adorn most of the ground of the building. The walls were painted a dark red, and appeared to be mostly solid marble.

There was a staircase that led to another floor, which had a pair of catwalks directly above the ground floor. There was no elevator to get up there quicker, but there was a fire pole that started to come out through a part of the ceiling between a pair of catwalks, and leading to the bottom floor.

"A fire pole?" Knuckles asked. "Nice touch."

"Vector thought that you might like that one," Avery smiled.

Sonic laughed, looking around more of the ground floor. To the right of the room appeared to be a communications room, with several computers and monitors possibly linked to the technology around the outside of the building. There was a recreation room to the left of that, and Sonic spotted some arcade machines and a large plasma screen TV on the wall, but he couldn't tell much else from where he was.

He then looked to his left, seeing a downstairs bathroom. Next to that was the living room, also with a TV. At a glance, it appeared to have some couches, two chairs, and even a love seat and a beanbag chair.

"Wow..." Sonic smiled. "Lot of cool stuff so far."

"You can look around inside the rooms," smiled Avery. "This is your place, after all."

"Maybe when we're done looking," Tails grinned. "Do we have a kitchen?"

"It's conjoined with the living room," said Avery. "It's a bit further up ahead. And yes, we kept our promise of hooking everything up for you. I trust that you brought your own stuff from home?"

"It's in the trunk of my car," said Knuckles.

"You can bring it in when you're done looking around," smiled Avery. "Want to go upstairs?"

The others nodded, and the bear smiled, leading them up the staircase. Like the ground floor, the upstairs area also had the same design and colour of carpet, but the walls were slightly different in colour, being a bright red in contrast to the darker shade of the downstairs area.

Upstairs was mostly a large corridor that ran from left to right, with a spare bathroom at the left end of the corridor. At the right end was what appeared to be a staircase of sorts, which seemed to run both downstairs and possibly up to a roof area.

Sonic looked around and noticed two catwalks that led from the floor of the corridor to the opposite side, which was the front part of the house. There was another corridor there, and the blue hedgehog spoke.

"What's with that part?" he asked.

"Ah, that is for the spare rooms," Avery replied. "Just in case you have guests coming around."

"Like a certain pink hedgehog?" Tails teased.

"Or a certain green plant girl?" Sonic shot back.

"Perhaps both," said Avery. "Also, there's a bathroom and double staircase on the opposite ends of that corridor, like there is on this one."

Sonic smiled and turned to see the fire pole in between the catwalks. "You guys truly did outdo yourselves for this. Thank you."

Avery nodded. "It was no problem, really. We figured that you guys deserved something a bit better than what we gave you at the station, so we all put this together."

"Is there anything else?" Tails asked.

Avery put a hand on his chin. "Ah, I almost forgot! Follow me!"

The bear used the pole to get to the lower floor, and the others followed suit as Avery headed in the direction of the recreation room. He opened the door with his ID card and the others entered with him.

Knuckles was the first to spot where Avery was going, seeing a door at the far end of the rec room. "The gym?"

"Not just that," Avery smiled, opening the door up. "Come and take a look for yourselves."

The others, somewhat confused, just shrugged it off and entered through the door. It appeared to be half gym, with a variety of machines, bags, and weights here and there, but there was also some obstacle courses, complete with running lanes, climbing nets, and even some trampolines in a line.

"What, are we training for the next Mobius Olympics?" Sonic chuckled. "This is pretty mental."

"We had to make it this extravagant so that we could test your abilities," said Avery. "Since you've gotten your implants, you guys really haven't had that many chances to test them out, and we couldn't help you at the training grounds back at the station because... well, you know why."

"So, how exactly are you going to test us out?" Sonic asked.

"Ah, we'll start that tomorrow," Avery replied as he turned to leave. "We don't have much time right now, and I really should get back to the station before it's too late. You can still run around, if you want."

"Anything else?" Sonic asked as he and his friends followed.

"Only that your car can fit through the alleyway," said Avery. "I just didn't take mine through since it'll be easier to get back to the station that way."

"Good thinking," Tails smiled.

The bear chuckled as he and the others made it to the main lobby. "So, is it all to your liking?"

"It's better than we thought," Sonic said.

"Yeah," Knuckles nodded. "Once we get our own stuff set up, it'll probably feel more like home."

"Or all four of our homes mashed together in one super awesome house," Tails chuckled.

Avery chuckled, turning to Shadow. "Well?"

"I'm worried about Maria," Shadow stated.

"Ah. Well, there's no need," Avery said. "Staying in the place overnight is optional. If you have people back at your homes, then you're more than welcome to go back any night that you want."

Knuckles smirked. "That's pretty cool. I'd like to bring Shade up here. She seems like she'd like it."

"So, is that better?" Avery asked Shadow. He didn't ask in a condescending tone, but more of a reassuring one.

The black and red hedgehog nodded and smiled a little bit. "It is. Thank you for all of this."

"No worries," Avery said, extending his hand. Shadow shook it, as did the others soon after before Green Hill's commissioner spoke again. "I'd really better be off. You guys just worry about setting your stuff up, okay?"

"Will do," Tails smiled.

Avery went to the front door, and turned to the four. "Oh, and guys?"

"Yeah?" Sonic asked.

"Try not to blow your new place up on the first day."

"Have you seen Knuckles try to cook?" Sonic replied.

"I accidentally overcook one grilled cheese and ham sandwich, and suddenly I'm not allowed in kitchens any more," Knuckles said sarcastically.

"Damn straight," Tails said.

Avery chuckled once more. "Later, fellas."

"See you," Sonic said. "And thanks!"

"It was no problem!"

With that, the bear left the building for proper, heading down through the alleyway and entering his car. He gave one last look at the new building and gave a wave, seeing the others standing outside the door and waving back at him.

"Man..." Sonic said as they all stopped. "I still can't believe that this is all here for us."

"Yeah," Knuckles agreed. "And we thought that the refurbished rooms at the station were cool. They don't have a patch on this."

"So, what's the first order of business?" Tails said to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog looked a bit confused. "Why are you asking me?"

"You are still our leader, right?" Shadow said.

Sonic smiled genuinely. "You guys still think that of me, huh? Even after everything that's happened?"

"Will you let that go?" said Knuckles. "Accidents happen to cops all the time, dude. We're not the first, and we won't be the last."

Sonic shrugged. "All right. First order is to pick your rooms and get your stuff set up. Clothes, kitchen stuff, and so on."

"I do wonder if we have an armoury around here," said Shadow. "Maybe we should have asked Avery about it."

Tails shrugged and went over to the communications room. "Well, let's see what's in here first off."

The others agreed, and went into the room with Tails. The yellow fox appeared to be in his element, and sat down in front of the monitors, looking over the computer screens as they showed various cameras to the outside world.

"This technology is fantastic!" he said to himself. "The pictures of the outside are clear as day. Nothing looks off."

Sonic nodded, and then saw a camera pointed to an odd place. "What the heck is that?"

Tails looked as his friend pointed. "Huh... I don't know," he said, his fingers clacking on the keyboard. "Let me take a look..."

The camera in question was focused on the outside, around the back area of the building. There didn't appear to be much there besides a small parking lot, just big enough to fit maybe ten cars at most.

More than that was that there appeared to be a small door hidden away in one of the back corners of the building. Tails typed in some keys again on the computer and tried to enlarge said door, enhancing the picture to make it clearer.

"There seems to be something out the back," said Tails. "Judging from the angle, it looks like it's from the back end of the living room."

"Then let's go check it out," said Sonic.

The yellow fox nodded and stood up to join with the others, and they all headed towards the living room. They took a glance around the inside, seeing that it was made for lounging, but it did have a section with a large table, possibly for mission meetings, punctuated with a phone on the table.

"Bet there's more of those around," said Knuckles.

"There was one in the comm room," said Tails.

Sonic nodded and continued walking to the back door of the living room. The others followed and they all walked out to the back area. They were a few feet from the actual parking lot, so they stepped out into it, looking around.

"I don't see much," said Knuckles.

"Maybe we're looking in the wrong place?" said Sonic.

Tails looked around and saw where the camera was looking. But when he walked over, he didn't see the small doors that were shown earlier on the screen. "That's odd..." he said to himself. "I could have sworn that this was the right place."

"Could be that we're at the wrong end," said Shadow.

"You don't ever want to wind up in the wrong end," said Knuckles. "Let's go look around the other one."

"I think that's the gym," said Tails.

The others nodded and went over to the other end of the building. They did see a pair of double doors there, and Knuckles used his card to open them to confirm that the door was for the gym.

"Um... yep, it's the gym," said the red echidna.

The others looked around inside, seeing that it was the main training area of the gym. They didn't get a closer look from earlier, but now that they were, they decided to have a closer look around.

What they saw was pretty much close to an armoury; there were many weapons around, and the four recognised them as being police issue weaponry from Green Hill, as well as some from other jurisdictions, including Star Light, Aqua Lake, and so on.

"Well, this should answer Shadow's question," Sonic said.

"Uh-huh," was all that the black and red hedgehog could say.

Knuckles laughed at that then saw a riot shield, picking it up from a rack with east and trying it out in front of him. "Ooh, this is cool. Hey, Sonic, try to hit me."

"Maybe some other time," replied the blue hedgehog.

"That is cool," Tails said to Knuckles as he looked past him. "But this is cooler."

The others looked in the direction where the yellow fox was looking, and saw four suits of armour. Unlike the Green Hill police armour, these ones appeared to be more tailor made for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow.

Each one was similar in appearance; the colour was completely black, and the armour appeared to mostly favour the body, but there was some protection around the bottom half as well. There was also metallic helmets complete with goggles should the need fit them, along with gloves, boots, and protective masks, also all black. To complete the look were name tags on the left breast of the suits, each for all four members in order; Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and finally Shadow.

"Looks like we've got our battle suits," Knuckles smiled.

"I don't even care that I was wrong about the camera angle any more," said Tails. "This is definitely a great payoff."

"Why do you think Avery didn't tell us about this?" asked Sonic.

"Like we said earlier," spoke Shadow, "he only had so much time."

"And plus," Tails added, "I think that he wanted it to be a surprise."

"Well, he sure did pull out a good one," Sonic smiled. "Seriously, this is awesome."

Shadow went over to the guns, grabbing a dark silver revolver. "Huh. These are pretty cool."

"You can't beat a good old six-shooter," said Knuckles, looking over the guns as well. "Got a sawed-off, too."

Sonic chuckled. "All right, that'll do it for the show and tell, I think," he said.

"There's even a firing range," Tails said, pointing to the training area.

"Must be more stuff to determine what our implants can do," Sonic guessed. "Still, it's been a while since any of us have fired a gun, and we could all use some practise."

"That's if we'll need them for our future missions," said Knuckles. "Or if we're allowed to use them."

"Why would they give is all of this gear if we're not allowed to use it?" Tails asked. "There's even grenades of all different kinds, and different ammo clips for the electric bullets."

"I know that," Knuckles replied, "but what if our new job description bans the use of lethal force?"

"Maybe it won't be necessary unless we're told otherwise," Shadow shrugged. "We won't know until we get our first case."

"You make it sound like we're detectives," Tails chuckled.

"Ruggedly handsome detectives with cool cybernetic parts," Sonic threw in, causing some laughter. "Come on. Let's go get our rooms set up."

"Sounds good to me," Knuckles replied.

The other two also agreed, and then they all left the room through the main door leading into the gym, with Shadow quickly shutting the back door that led them to the armoury. The four went through the rec room and came to a stop, taking a look at the comfortable couches and gaming systems attached to the TV that they couldn't see earlier.

"Or..." the blue hedgehog said, "we could have a friendly four-way gaming tournament?"

"Also sounds good to me," Knuckles smiled. "It's too early to be doing actual work."

"Eh, why not," said Tails. "All the stuff's still in the car anyway, and I don't think anyone can be bothered getting it."

"We'll do it when we're done," Sonic said. "For now, let's just have some fun with this."

Knuckles nodded and pulled out his phone. "I'll provide the tunes."

As he did, the others went about setting up their game, which was a fighting game. They chose to have a miniature tournament with each other, and Sonic and Shadow stood back as Tails and Knuckles were the first two to battle.

'I still can't believe it,' Sonic thought. 'After all the shit that's happened to us, we're here. We have a new job, and there are so many new opportunities. But us four have to stay focused on finding Nack. I swear to God, we'll take that bastard down together...'

"Yo, Sonic, you're up next," Knuckles said.

"I beat him!" Tails said happily.

"Beginner's luck..." the rec echidna mumbled.

The blue hedgehog walked over, taking the controller pad that Knuckles handed to him and picking his character before turning to Tails, offering a hand. The yellow fox shook it and smiled.

"A gentleman's game, good sir," Tails said. "Good luck."

"You too," Sonic smirked. "You're going to need it!"

* * *

 **And that's it for another chapter! Sorry that it took so long. I was having stomach problems for a few nights, and I didn't want to stay up late writing whilst that was going on, so... yeah. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, as well as the description of their new place. I also hope you liked reading about Amadeus and Rosemary for the first time. I've never written them in any of my stories before, so I hope that I'm doing them justice. Anyway, I'll see you all in the next chapter, whenever that may be. And Happy Valentine's Day in advance. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	17. Side Mission

"All right, you're getting it to them, right?" Beau asked as he spoke down the phone. "Okay, good. Just remember to get them to push it further out. We weren't given control over the west side for nothing..." The snake stopped as he looked up to see one if his associates, and he waved at him to sit down as he finished up on the phone. "Okay, just make sure that it's the right stuff. We cannot fuck this up. All right... bye."

"Everything okay?" asked the colleague.

"Yeah," Beau nodded. "What's up, man?"

"I just got Manuel on the phone. Apparently, Nack's been trying to call you."

"Shit..." Beau pulled out his phone as he felt it vibrate, seeing Nack's name pop up. He answered it without thinking further. "Hey there."

"Hey there yourself," Nack replied. "Why haven't you been returning my calls?"

Beau sighed. "I've been busy all day making sure that my stuff gets pushed out."

"And what of the Fokus situation?"

Beau sighed again. "I haven't come across any yet. I paid those I trust the most with the most money to try and find it, but nobody's been able to yet."

"Then how about you stop searching?" Nack suggested.

"Because if I do that, I'll be out of a job," Beau replied. "The economy in Westopolis is less than fantastic, in case you hadn't noticed."

"You didn't let me finish," Nack replied. "How about you make it?"

"I can't," Beau replied. "It's one of the few drugs that I know nothing about."

"Then get your men to do it," Nack said. "You've got enough junkies over there. At least one of them must know about Fokus."

"Well, do you know where to get it?"

"Of course not," Nack replied. "It wasn't discovered until about the time I arrived in Green Hill, so I have no clue where it could be in Westopolis."

"Fine..." Beau sighed. "I'll try to get to work on it."

"Good." Nack smiled to himself. "Don't disappoint me."

The snake grumbled a bit before speaking. "I'll try not to. You take care now."

"You too," Nack replied, hanging up as he looked at his two men in the front seats of the car. "That went rather well, I think."

"Is Beau playing ball?" asked the human who was driving.

"So far, yes," the purple weasel replied. "I don't have any reason to suspect him of anything, but it's always best to be safe."

"Fair enough," replied the other human. "But that does beg the question of why we're going to Lara's right now?"

"I just wanted to drop in on the girl," Nack said. "Also, in terms of progress, hers is always the nicest to see visually."

"I'll bet," the human replied. "Seeing a bunch of pretty girls walking around in basically nothing must really get you going."

"Not girls," Nack clarified. "Women. And not nothing, either. The best dresses made of the finest materials."

"But since this is Westopolis, those materials are imported, right?" asked the human driving.

"Actually, Lara makes all of her own clothing." Nack sighed. "To think, she could have gone into fashion design. I'm almost glad that she didn't."

"Does she make those dresses herself?" asked the other human.

"She helps a lot, but she's taught her girls so much about how to sort themselves out, clothing and makeup a like." The purple weasel then smiled. "I'm a firm believer that a person's clothes determines what kind of person they are. If not, they at least help to establish how someone can be."

"Is that why you wear your suits?"

"It is indeed," Nack nodded. "I want to be more than just a crime lord who looks good doing what he does; I want everything that I say and do to feel dignified. I want my words to be more than just instructions, and I want my actions to be more then violence."

"It's difficult to be dignified when you're trying to push hookers, drugs, and guns around Westopolis, which is the least dignified place in all of Mobius."

"That's why I'm doing what I'm doing," Nack said. "It's like I've said from the start; I want Westopolis to mean something again. I'm going to build it up with those hookers, drugs, and guns that you mentioned. Then I'm going to spread that out to everywhere else like a plague."

"In a dignified fashion, of course?" asked the driving human.

"If it weren't done that way, then I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing."

The human nodded, and Nack relaxed in the back seat as their drive to Lara's continued.

 **Back with Sonic and the others at the new base...**

"And... there we go!" Tails said as he finished making his bed. "That is my bedroom officially all done!"

"Took your time," Sonic replied from his own room, stepping out onto the balcony.

"Well, not all of us can move as fast as you," the yellow fox shrugged, also stepping out. "Let's have a look at yours."

The blue hedgehog shrugged and stood back for his friend to see his room. Tails looked around and nodded to himself before noticing that the dark red paint in his room was still fairly wet on the walls.

"Trying to match the theme of the building, I see?" Tails noted.

"Yeah," Sonic shrugged. "You do the same?"

Tails nodded. "Let's see how the others did."

Sonic nodded, and the two went to the far right room. They had decided earlier which room would belong to who, with Knuckles having the far left, then Tails, then Sonic, then Shadow on the far right.

"You all done in there?" Sonic asked with a knock.

"Just making the bed," Shadow replied. "I'll be out in a minute."

Tails nodded, going over to Knuckles' door. "What about you, big red?"

The room was silent for a little bit, and Sonic put his ear to the door, hearing a light rumbling sound. He shook his head and grabbed the door's handle, opening it to see Knuckles in his bed, which was the only part of his room that seemed to be made, and even that was stretching it.

Shadow soon came out of his own room to see the commotion, seeing the red echidna sleeping. "Goddammit..." he mumbled. He looked around his friend's room. "The place is a sty."

"What do you expect?" Sonic said. "He doesn't have his wifey to clean up his mess after him, and I don't know about you, but I sure as shit ain't doing it."

"Curse his snoring," Tails said. "And the rest of him."

The blue hedgehog shook his head and walked over, then had an idea. He used the pole and went to the kitchen to grab something before coming back up to meet with the others, showing a brush in one hand and a can of whipped cream in the other.

"Um... what are you doing?" Tails asked.

"Waking him up," Sonic smiled.

Due to how Knuckles was sleeping, he was on his back with a hand dangling off the side. Sonic sprayed some cream into his hand before using the brush on Knuckles' nose to tickle him. The red echidna giggled a bit in his sleep before sharply moving his hand up to slap off the annoying feeling... that hand being the one filled with whipped cream.

The red echidna shot up, spitting some of the sweet substance out from where it had covered his mouth, and wiping his eyes to see the others. "Really? The whipped cream joke?"

"It was that or a bucket of water," said Sonic. "And we just got these rooms. It'd be a shame to ruin them so soon... oh wait."

Knuckles looked around his messy bedroom. "So what? I wanted a nap. I told myself that I was going to do the rest of this when I woke up."

"You barely even did your bed," said Shadow. "I don't even think that your quilt cover is on right."

"And besides, all you've done so far today is play a gaming competition with the rest of us," Sonic added.

"And a champion needs his rest," Knuckles replied.

"Shadow won, actually," said Tails.

"Oh." Knuckles then shook his head before looking down to see the quilt in question, haphazardly stuffed into the cover. "I'll sort that out..." he said, reluctantly getting out of bed. He slept in the clothes he was wearing all day, so he kept them on.

"Why nap this early, anyway?" asked Tails. "It's barely even lunchtime."

"I just wanted to see how it felt sleeping in the new place, I guess," Knuckles shrugged. "It's not bad, but it doesn't feel the same without someone to curl up with."

"Want to borrow Tails' teddy bear?" asked Sonic.

"Hey, Muffins was a great bed companion, and you know it," Tails replied, smirking.

"Did you bring him?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"I did," Tails nodded. "But before you start laughing, no, I'm not sleeping with him. He's here more for sentimentality."

"That's right," Shadow nodded. "I remember you telling us at the academy about it when we saw Muffins for the first time. It was the first thing your parents ever made for you."

"More so my mum than my dad," Tails nodded. "She always handled the more delicate stuff better. She's the soul of the Wrench Turner, dad's the heart, and I'm the brain."

"Always important to keep that stuff," said Shadow.

Before anyone could continue their reminiscing, they heard a phone call. The four immediately made way for the living room, sitting around one of the coffee tables there as the phone rang. Sonic pressed the answer button and put it on speaker.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Sonic? It's Simian," the other voice replied.

"Ah, good to hear from you again, sir," Sonic said.

"Sir's only good for when you're working for us," the gorilla chuckled. "Having said that, I do have a job for you guys."

"What's up?" Knuckles asked through a yawn.

"Um... is he okay?" asked Simian.

"He'll be fine, ignore him," said Tails. "So, what's the job?"

"It's nothing too serious, but it does need all four of you. There's been some rumblings out by the docks, and a couple of our guys are checking it out."

"Any gunfire so far?" asked Shadow.

"Not yet, but there is enough tension out there for violence to ensue. I recommend that you head over there, but proceed with caution."

"We will," Sonic said. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Good luck," Simian said, hanging up.

The four stood up, looking at each other before Tails spoke. "Our first mission on our first day as freelancers... why do I get this strange feeling that we've been here before?"

"Only this time, we're mostly on our own," said Sonic. "Come on. Let's get suited up in the armoury."

 **At the Green Hill docks...**

A pair of Green Hill police, a male rabbit and a female pig, were speaking with the docks' owner, a human male in his mid-thirties, who appeared to be rather distressed. "I'm telling you, I don't know anything that you're talking about."

"So, you don't know anything about the rumoured shipments of drugs going around?" asked the rabbit cop.

"Nothing," said the owner. "Why would I know about that? I'm just trying to run a business here. Please, leave me alone."

"It might be best if we take a look around," said the pig.

"What are you hoping to find? We've got wood, boats, and water. That's it."

"And a lot of fishing equipment," said the first cop. "Some of which looks like it's missing. Is one of your boys out on a little trip?"

"Look, my point is, you can't walk in here without a warrant," said the owner, growing more frustrated. "No warrant, no search, no nothing. Now, please leave."

"We've been talking this out with you for a long time," said the pig cop. "Are you sure that you have nothing else to say to us?"

The owner nodded. "Sure I'm sure."

The cops nodded, and the pig spoke again. "All right, fine. We'll leave you be."

As soon as they turned around, they heard a car start to pull up. Both the cops and the docks owner looked around to see a vehicle that was not police sanctioned being driven by four Mobians who weren't in traditional Green Hill uniforms.

The car stopped, and Sonic was first out the car. "You guys need backup?"

"Ah, it's the freelancers," the rabbit cop smiled. "We actually didn't send the call out, no."

The pig cop looked the four up and down. "I'm digging the freelancer armour. It look good on you."

Knuckles shrugged. "It's just to try it out. I'm just glad that it all fits."

Sonic nodded. "So, what seems to be the issue?"

"The issue is that this docks owner has been having some rumours spread about him," said the pig.

"What kinds of rumours?" Tails asked, addressing the owner directly.

"Rumours that one of his workers has been shipping in illegal substances," answered the rabbit. "Unfortunately, we don't have a warrant to search the place."

The yellow fox nodded as he listened before turning back to the owner. "What's your name, sir?"

"Stan."

"Well, Stan, we need your cooperation on this matter."

"But I can't give you my cooperation without a warrant," Stan whined a bit.

"Listen, I get that you don't want to believe that one of your workers could be doing something illegal," Tails said evenly. "But we need to look around."

"And before you bring up the warrant thing," Sonic added, "we're not cops. We're freelancers. We don't need a warrant to look around. Just your permission."

Stan looked hesitant, and thought it over for a few moments before nodding. "Fine. But just you four. I want the cops to stay out here."

"We understand," the pig said, turning to the four. "Good luck, rookies."

Sonic scoffed with a smile as he followed the docks owner to his building. It wasn't a huge affair like the warehouse in Star Light, instead being much smaller, but still enough to have workers be brought in and out.

"So, what do you do out here, exactly?" Tails asked curiously.

"Fishing," Stan replied. "My guys, and occasionally myself, take a boat and go out onto the sea to fish."

Sonic looked at the large nets and rods on display. "You ever catch anything super big?"

Stan grinned and gestured to a frame on his wall. "That right there. It's a replica of a swordfish I caught a long time ago. Turns out that it makes good sushi."

"Impressive," the blue hedgehog nodded. "So... is it cool if we look around now?"

"You won't find much in here," Stan shrugged. "This building is essentially my office, so I couldn't think of where any of my guys could hide anything. If they were guilty, I mean."

"You're very adamant about that, aren't you?" Shadow noticed, looking through some tackle boxes.

"I... I like my workers. They're good guys," said Stan. "None of them have had any instances of this, but lately one of them has been slacking a little bit..."

"And where is he now?" Shadow asked.

"He's out on a trip," Stan replied. "He left a while ago, so he should be back soon."

"How long has he been slacking?" asked Tails.

"For about a week. Mostly it was due to him staying up late, which I can get. Late fishing can be pretty harsh on your sleeping schedule."

"But then you suddenly noticed that it wasn't because of sleep?"

Stan nodded. "One of my other guys noticed that it took him longer to get back one night. We don't go too far beyond our own reef, but far enough where there's fish to be had. Depending on the weather and the tide, it's usually about an hour at most."

"That doesn't seem so bad," said Knuckles.

"True, but on that one night, it took him a good two and a half hours to make it back," said Stan. "The water was calm, and there wasn't many fish that night, or maybe there were and he just got unlucky with the catch."

"What about his attitude?" asked Tails. "Did he appear out of sorts?"

"Just more tired than usual since he stayed up later, but that's it," Stan said. "If drugs are involved, I don't think that he's using them."

"But drugs might be involved regardless, right?" Sonic asked, a hint of regret in his question.

"That could be the case, yes," Stan nodded.

The blue hedgehog nodded back in reply before continuing the search with the others. They soon made it to the small upstairs portion of the fishing building, which had some equipment, as well as the bedrooms.

"Can we take a look around in these rooms?" Knuckles asked.

"Help yourself," Stan smiled. "Like you said, you don't need a warrant."

The red echidna chuckled and went with his friends to look through the bedrooms. Some did have other workers there, but they weren't doing much and were willing to comply with the orders of the authorities.

After searching through the rooms, they found one of the empty ones, assuming it to belong to the possible suspect.

"All right, let's check it out," said Tails.

Sonic nodded, opening the door. Unlike the other rooms, this one seemed a bit more dishevelled. Even though it was still in good condition, it was noticeably messier than the other rooms, with things seemingly rushed into where they would be, such as clothes and books scattered about.

"Looks like this is the dude's room," said Sonic.

Shadow looked around in the attached bedroom, looking through the drawers but coming up short. "I can't find anything in here," he called to the others.

"We've got nothing out here," replied Knuckles. "Whatever this kid has, he probably took it with him."

"All right, let's go back to the owner," said Sonic.

"Wait," Tails said, his ears flicking behind him. "I hear something..."

He went over to the window, the view of which looked over the ocean beyond the docks. He squinted, seeing a boat coming on its way. Without needing to say anything the yellow fox rushed downstairs, with the others following.

Stan noticed the commotion. "What's happening?"

"We think your worker is back," said Sonic. "We saw him through his bedroom window."

"All right, let's go and talk to him," Stan said, standing from behind his desk and walking over to them.

The blue hedgehog nodded, and soon they all left the front door of the fishing building, going over to the docks as the boat pulled up. They waited as the worker tied his boat up and grabbed his net and other fishing equipment.

"How much did you catch?" Stan asked.

"Eh, a decent amount," the fisher shrugged, showing his basket. It had several fish in it that filled just under half of the basket. "Who are these four? Robocop stunt doubles?"

"Not inaccurate, but no," Sonic said. "We're freelance agents, here to help the Green Hill police that you see over there," he finished, curling a thumb in the direction of the aforementioned police.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"We've been told that you've been acting a bit suspicious lately," Shadow said. "Apparently, your late night fishing ventures have gone on later than they reasonably should, and you've been slacking with your catch."

"This isn't a bad catch," said the worker, gesturing to his net.

"It's a bit below average, but not the worst," said Stan. "Still, these guys need to look over your boat."

"What for?"

"Well, there's been some rumours of drug shipments going around, and we have reason to believe that you may have taken part in it," said Knuckles.

"What reason would that be?"

"We just told you, dude," Sonic said. "Try to keep up. What have you been up to late at night?"

"I'm not talking to you guys," said the worker. "Just a bunch of cops who couldn't hack it. Yeah, I heard about you on the news."

"So, you're aware that we're not cops any more then?" said Knuckles.

"Yep."

"Well, this next part will be easy for us," the red echidna. "We need to search your boat."

"Don't you need a warrant?"

"They're freelance," said Stan. "I know, they said the same to me."

"I don't give a shit," said the worker. "I'm not letting them search my boat."

"Let me rephrase what I said," Knuckles responded, stepping closer. "We're going to search your boat."

The fisher turned to Stan. "Can't you do anything?"

"You're not in my good books right now," the owner shrugged. "Either you let them search your stuff, or I'll fire you right now."

"Fire me?"

"It's better than getting killed over some drugs," said Tails. "Which one would you rather lose? Your job, or your life?"

The worker grunted. "Fine. But you're not going to find anything."

"Thank you," Sonic said.

The four went over to the boat, starting to search through it. Since it was a relatively small boat, it didn't take too long to go over, with the boat itself being big enough to seat at least four or five people.

They were done checking over the main deck, and Sonic went to a small door, trying to open it, but failing. He looked back up at the worker. "You got the keys?"

The fisherman nodded, throwing them over to the blue hedgehog. "Heads up!"

Sonic caught them quickly before turning back to the storage door, placing the key in the hole and opening it up. He stepped inside, soon being followed in by Tails, and the two began their search on the inside.

"Think we might find something?" Tails asked.

"Maybe," Sonic shrugged. "It looks like a bunch of spare stuff to me." He found a tackle box and opened it up, seeing several bait worms crawling around. "Ew... gross..."

Tails looked in the same box. "Yeah... not the most pleasant creatures, but they're harmless."

"It's just a little bit unsettling to see so many crawling around," the blue hedgehog replied. He inspected the worms more closely. "Hey, wait a minute..."

"What's up?" the yellow fox replied.

"It looks like the worms are crawling over something..." Sonic said. "I saw a small gap in the middle. It looked like a bag."

"You want to reach in and grab it?" Tails asked.

"Well, I guess I've got no choice," Sonic nodded. "Hey, Knuckles!" he called out.

The red echidna showed up. "What is it?" he asked.

"Could you search through these worms?" Sonic said. "I saw something at the bottom of the box."

"What, you're afraid of a little slithery pink thing with either two heads or two asses?" Knuckles asked.

"I believe they're just both male and female at the same time, making them the only animals to be hermaphrodites," Tails replied.

"First of all, it's weird that you know that," Knuckles said, searching through the box. "And second of all... bingo." He reached to hand what was inside to Tails, but had to shake off a few worms before the bag was taken.

"It's not Fokus," Tails said, inspecting the two small bags that he was given, "but it's better than nothing."

"It looks like weed," Sonic said. "And a bit of cocaine mixed in there too."

"What's the betting that there are more in the other boxes?" Knuckles suggested.

"Pretty high," said Sonic. "But I ain't going through all of those worms just to check."

"Then you two pansies go outside and talk to Stan, and me and Shadow will search through the other boxes."

"Eh, sounds good to me," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

He and Tails were somewhat rushed out of the boat by Knuckles as Shadow joined the red echidna in the storage room to help him on his search. They both searched through the remaining boxes, but they thankfully didn't have to go through all of them.

As they were doing this, Sonic and Tails were waiting patiently, choosing to hold things off until the other two were done searching. When they were all done, they appeared from the storage room of the boat and locked it behind them.

"We got more of it," Knuckles said, presenting several bags along with Shadow.

Stan turned to his worker. "What's the meaning of this, Carl?"

"Look, I'm not using it!" Carl defended.

"I don't care about that!" said Stan. "What are you doing with it?"

"I'm just holding it for someone," said Carl.

"That's a lot of drugs to just be holding," said Sonic. "Coke, fix, weed, and ice? Do you know how dangerous that shit is?"

"I do, which is why I'm not using it," said the fisher.

"That's not helping your case right now, dude," said Knuckles.

The two cops then came over. "Since you guys don't have jail cells at your new place, we'll have to take him in," said the pig.

"Fair enough," Tails nodded. "But after a few more questions."

"Hey, you're here for backup, not to take over our job," said the rabbit.

"If we left you to do your job, you'd be calling in a hazmat crew just to open one of those tackle boxes," Knuckles retorted. "Just a couple of questions with Carl. That's all that we're asking for."

"Fine," the rabbit grunted. "But make it quick."

Sonic rolled his eyes before turning to the worker. "So, where'd you get them?"

"From out in the middle of the sea," Carl replied. "I always meet with... someone on a boat. It's always a different person, and they never tell me any of their names."

"Any clue where they're coming from?" Shadow asked.

"No," Carl shook his head. "I always meet them late at night anyway, so I never know where they go off to."

"And you just bought these drugs from them?" asked Sonic.

"Yes," Carl nodded. "I haven't sold anything yet. They told me to stock up on them before trying to push them out."

"That does explain why we found as much as we did," Knuckles threw in. "Maybe these deals weren't going on for that long."

"Still," the pig cop said, "we need to take him in."

"And we need the drugs for the evidence locker," the rabbit added.

"Yeah, sure," Sonic said, handing the drugs over. "Although, I do have one final question for Carl here, before you completely take him away."

"Last one. Make it quick," the pig said.

Sonic nodded, turning to Carl. "Do you know anything about someone named Nack?"

The fisher looked bemused for a moment. "I think I've heard the name somewhere before, but what does he have to do with anything?"

"Well, the only person who you could have gotten them from is him, or someone working with him," said the blue hedgehog. "Do you remember anything about the people who you were dealing with?"

"You said one more question, hedgehog," the rabbit said.

Sonic flipped his middle finger to the two cops, ignoring them as he waited for an answer. "Well?"

Carl shook his head. "N-No. Like I said, they never said their names, and always changed the people."

"So, you don't remember anything specific?" Knuckles asked.

"Not really. They all kept themselves covered in masks and stuff." Carl hesitated again before taking a deep breath. "All that I remember is that they were Mobians. They were shorter than normal humans, and I remember seeing tails on some of them."

"Thank you for your cooperation," Sonic said, turning to the cops. "Take him away!"

"Go fuck yourself," said the rabbit as he slapped a pair of handcuffs on the fisher.

"Is that any way to speak to the people who just did half of your job for you?" Shadow said.

"Only half?" Tails added. "That's a little bit low, don't you think?"

"Eh, I tried to keep it fair," said the black and red hedgehog, handing the drugs over to the pig. "Try not to lose them."

"You think that just because you don't have a job any more that you can do whatever you want?" the pig asked.

"Yep," Shadow nodded.

The pig snorted, getting back into the police car as it drove off. Sonic and the others looked as it went away, laughing to themselves before turning back to Stan, who seemed a bit concerned, his head hanging down.

"Everything okay, dude?" Tails asked him.

The owner nodded. "I'll be fine. I just need to take some time to think about this."

"You going to be okay with one worker down?" asked Sonic.

"I've got others," said Stan. "But out of curiosity, will he be gone for long?"

"It depends," said Knuckles. "All of what we've found will make him out as guilty should there be a court hearing. I don't think it's the fact that he didn't sell any of it, but more so the fact that he had a fair amount of drugs. Serious ones, at that."

"It could at least be maybe a month or two," said Sonic. "Maybe more, but it won't be more than a year."

Stan nodded. "Hopefully he gets himself sorted out in that time."

"Yeah," the blue hedgehog agreed. "Anyway, I think that we're about done here."

"Ah, right," the docks owner nodded. "Thanks for the help. I needed it."

"Well, you've got more than enough guys to back things up," Tails said. "You'll be okay."

Stan smiled. "Let's hope so. Once again, thanks for helping me."

"No problem," said Sonic. "Take care now."

"You too!"

The others waved at the owner before getting back into Knuckles' car. "Back to the base?" the red echidna asked.

"I don't see why not," said Sonic. "We may as well wait for further orders."

"And you need to get your room fixed up," said Tails.

"I will, okay?" Knuckles said, reaching down and turning on the radio. "Any preferences for driving music?"

"Stick To Your Guns," Shadow said.

"Good choice," Sonic smiled.

"I know. That's why I picked them."

The blue hedgehog shook his head as Knuckles prepared to play the music, but was cut short when his car's microphone started whirring. He carefully picked it up and looked back at the others in confusion before speaking into it.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Knuckles! It's Bunnie!" the southern belle replied.

"How'd you get this frequency?" Sonic asked.

"Aw, it was still in the database. We ain't gotten it fixed up to your freelance building yet."

"So, it's kinda like a residual effect?" Tails asked.

"Sure is!" Bunnie giggled.

"So, what did you call us for?"

"I've got a mission for y'all!" Bunnie replied, her voice becoming more serious. "There was an attack that went down a few minutes ago nearby the highway. It was a carjacking."

"We'll get there," said Knuckles. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Any time, sugar!" Bunnie said. "You take care now!" She was then heard talking to someone else before she came back. "Ooh, wait! How'd it go at the docks?"

"Relatively successful," said Sonic. "The guy we wanted to bust got busted, and everything seems to be fine. We were just about to leave and head back to our base, actually."

"Well, it's a good thing that I caught you guys when I did! Now, go get them!"

"Will do!" Knuckles said. "Over and out." He then switched off the microphone and put it back. "Looks like my room will have to wait for a little bit longer."

"You're still not getting out of it," Tails warned.

"Aw, you're so cute when you try to get serious," Knuckles smirked, reaching for the radio again to put on the tunes. "Let's get this done!"

With that, he sped off, the music blasting as they all went on to their next mission.

 **Back with Nack and his henchmen...**

The trio had just pulled up to the front parking lot of Lara's brothel. Despite the poor quality of how most of Westopolis looked, Lara's hotel was a shining jewel. Of course, said jewel was somewhat tainted by what went on inside it, and its name of simply Indulgence didn't help much.

But she had taken Nack's advice when she had taken his money; she had good girls, but she bought better ones. They had good dresses, but she made them better ones. Her interior decoration was the best. And yet, she'd made it better.

Nack and his two men saw this very clearly when they had stepped in. Various dark shades of red adorned the front entrance room of the place, with hints of velvet, black, and gold outlining much of the buildings walls.

"Wow..." the purple weasel grinned. "She really did step it up a notch."

"Like what you see?" Lara asked, coming down the stairs.

"Love it," Nack replied, greeted by a kiss on the cheek from the tiger. He noticed her sheer looking dark green dress, with lovely cyan blue tones complimenting it, and a shining silver pair of heels.

"How are things going with the other two?" she asked.

"I just finished speaking with Beau earlier. He's been having some issues in regards to Fokus, but other than that he's pushing his product to where it needs to go."

"Apparently, I heard that he was trying to get a bit of it across the sea," Lara said.

Nack nodded. "That's an M.O. of his. He always changes the dealer, and always keeps their identities secret. It's good for business."

"If that's one way of going about it, what are others?" the tiger asked curiously as she led Nack around, the two men following.

"Well, there's the always classic method of selling on a street corner," Nack smirked. "But since pretty much everywhere in Westopolis is either a street corner or can have something bad for you sold, the way that he operates now is much more agreeable."

"Would you ever consider shipping overseas?" one of the men asked Lara.

She shrugged. "I could, but humans and Mobians are much more difficult to get across the water than drugs and guns. It's a lot easier to hide those than it is to hide a whore."

"Maybe you hide them in plain sight," Nack suggested. "Take one of your girls and make them dress not like a whore, but like a woman. Make them seem like a normal person. If they don't look like a hooker, then people won't think that they're a hooker."

"Is that why most people don't think that you're a psychopathic genius?" Lara smirked.

"Now you're just stroking my ego," the purple weasel winked.

"We stroke more than just egos here," the tiger replied, catching on to the double meaning without missing a beat. "Speaking of which, would you like one of my girls to spend your time with?"

Nack thought it over. "Tonight, perhaps. For now, I'd like to spend some time with you in your office, if I may."

Lara nodded. "Certainly."

The grey and white tiger led the purple weasel past the large front desk and to the staircase on the right. Nack's two henchmen weren't too far behind, maintaining a close proximity to the other two.

Soon, they had all reached the top of the stairs, and Lara turned the corner to lead the three to her office. She had a pair of bodyguards posted outside just in case, as per Nack's orders to get herself some protection, but they knew about Nack, so they allowed him in.

Lara's main office looked a lot like a smaller, more compact version of her main hall. She sat behind the desk in front of a large window, with Nack taking a seat opposite her, his two men staying on either side behind him.

"You never cease to impress me," Lara smiled.

"Neither do you," Nack nodded. "You really have done yourself wonders. I'm glad that you kept to your promise."

Lara nodded. "As did the others, I believe." She then paused. "Is that why you wanted to talk to me privately?"

Nack nodded back. "Mostly. I trust them, but... well, Beau can be a bit sloppy. He is the youngest, after all. And Manuel often seems too kind to be running guns and holding an illegal fighting ring."

"He damn near killed someone for making advances on his kids," Lara replied. "Kind he may be, but he's not the kind of person that you want to piss off."

"It's rare that you see him pissed off," Nack shrugged. "Maybe that's just a way to do it when it comes to some people; you put the ones that they love in danger."

"Let's focus on Westopolis first," Lara reminded. "We can move on to stuff like that in other cities."

The purple weasel gave a fake gasp. "Are you implying that you can't have loved ones in Westopolis?"

"Short of Manuel and his daughters, you mean?"

Nack inclined his head. "Point made."

The two shared some laughter before the tiger broke it off. "You are going to check up on the other two after you're done here, I presume?" she asked.

"I am indeed. Since you live the closest to the old abandoned prison, we thought it best to come to you first. After you is Manuel, then Beau."

"Maybe we'll wind up living further apart as we take more control of our respective borders," Lara shrugged.

"Perhaps, but that will take some time. All of the best things do."

The grey tiger nodded. "I couldn't agree more." She laid back and sighed. "It is risky, though. Pushing out to other cities so early."

Nack smirked. "If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that even the smallest drop of corruption can poison an entire city. We just happen to right now live in the worst cesspool for it."

"Or the best, depending on your perspective," Lara giggled. "So, speaking of poisoning cities..."

The purple weasel nodded at her trailing off, knowing what she was hinting at. "Like we both said, our police forces aren't the most reliable. But leave them to me, for the most part. We kill two birds with one stone; I get them involved in everyone's businesses, and the force grows smaller and smaller each day."

The grey tiger grinned, although this one was less sultry and appeared somewhat more frightening. "And when we have them all where we want them, we turn them fully to our side. They go from former police here to new police in other cities, and that little drop of corruption spreads and spreads. Am I right?"

Nack laughed aloud. "You are indeed on the money!" He calmed down a bit, but still chuckled. "It just sound so fucking sinister when you say it. I like that. I like it a lot."

Lara smiled. "Any preference for your girl tonight? Oh, and I need to know the time too."

"Is a certain grey tiger with great fashion sense and a devilish smile off the menu at... let's say, 10 PM?"

She shook her head. "She certainly isn't."

Nack nodded and stood up, reaching to shake her hand. She took it, and he pulled her across the desk to kiss her, which she returned. The kiss was full of lust, not love, and felt more like an affirmation of their deal for later if anything, as well as a sign of things to come.

"You take care," Lara said when the kiss broke.

"Will do," Nack replied.

With that, he left, his two men following behind. They made it outside and into their car, starting to head for Manuel's place. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Nack smiled to himself as he sat in the back seat.

"Boys..." he said happily, "today is going to be a great day."

"And capped off by a great night for you, it seems," the human driving said.

"Indeed," Nack grinned, reclining back. "I'm going to take a little nap. You two wake me up when we get there."

"Will do."

The purple weasel pulled his hat over his eyes as he closed them, the grin on his face still present as he rested. Partially because of tonight, but mostly due to how well his plans were being set in motion.

He looked forward to the next few days.

* * *

 **And here it is! Sorry that it took so long. I have no excuse, except for going over some past chapters to correct some mistakes. Some, not all. But anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed it! Next chapter will have a bit of action in it, and it's been a while since I've written a good fight in this story. I'll see you all then. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	18. Waiting In The Wings

Knuckles drove the car as quickly as he could after they left the docks, and was making his way to the highway out of the city along with the other three. As they drove, Tails pulled up the microphone and spoke into it.

"This is the freelancers to Green Hill, do you copy?"

"We do indeed," replied Espio on the other side. "What do you need help with?"

"First of all, it's good to hear from you again," Tails said. "Secondly, we heard that there was a carjacking earlier. Can you give us a location?"

"Same here," Espio replied with a smile. "And I'm not sure. We did have a car tracking them, but they lost them. The only details that we have is that the car is dark green in colour, and and it's huge, so possibly an SUV or something along those lines."

"Did we get a license plate?" Knuckles asked.

"GH89 UUR."

"So, the car belongs to a Green Hill resident?" asked Knuckles.

"It seems that way," said Espio.

"Do we know how many people stole the car?" Sonic asked. "And were the owners hurt?"

"No, they're fine," Espio said. "A little beat up, but they're okay. And from what I know, there were just two guys."

"All right, thanks," Sonic said. "We'll get back to you later when it's all over, okay?"

"Take care," the purple chameleon replied. "Over and out."

"I ain't in the mood to drive all over the highway to find these ass-holes," Knuckles said. "We need to narrow it down somehow."

"Well, let's check near the entrance to the highway," Shadow suggested. "That was where the family was found, right?"

"Well, we're almost there now," Tails said, looking up ahead.

Knuckles nodded and continued driving, seeing that they weren't too far off from the entrance to the highway. As they approached it, they saw a Green Hill cop car on the side of a road just a few feet before it.

"I'll go talk to them," said Sonic. "Keep the car running. I'll be back soon."

"Go for it, oh fearless leader," Knuckles smirked.

The blue hedgehog chuckled, walking over to the police car and saw two human officers next to it, talking to the people that had been carjacked. As Sonic approached, the cops looked up at him.

"Ah," said the first. "Was wondering when you'd show up."

"I go where the wind takes me," Sonic shrugged.

"You going after those thieves?" asked the other cop.

"Will be soon," Sonic nodded. "But I wanted to talk to the owners quickly. It won't take too long."

"Take your time," said the second cop. "We've already talked to them enough."

Sonic nodded again. "Thanks." He turned to the owners, who were a young human couple, in their mid-to-late twenties. "So, what happened?" Sonic asked, noticing the injuries of the humans. Just a couple of light bruises, but still enough to hurt.

"We were on our way back home from visiting some family in Star Light, when a couple of guys held us up at gunpoint," said the male. "We said no initially, but they forced us out and beat on us a bit before taking the car."

"Did nobody else try to stop them?" Sonic asked.

"There weren't many people around," said the female.

Sonic nodded. "Any idea where they went?"

"No," said the female. "Last I checked, they were going up on the freeway."

"We would have gone after them," one of the cops said, "but we thought it best to look after the owners."

"All right, thanks for your help," Sonic said to the cops, before turning back to the car-deprived couple. "You two just stay put, and we'll get your car back."

"Are you a cop?" asked the male.

"Used to be," the blue hedgehog replied as Knuckles honked his car's horn. "It's complicated, and the more time that I spend wagging my chin, the further the bad guys could be. Sorry. Got to go."

"Thanks for the help!" the male called.

"Any time!" Sonic replied as he rushed back to the car. He hopped in, and Knuckles sped off up the highway as quickly as he could.

"Did they not know where they might be going either?" Shadow asked.

"No," Sonic shook his head. "I assume that the cops asked the same and got the same response. They got here not long after, but didn't get to chase the bad guys since they were looking after the people who owned the car."

"Good thing we're here to sort that part out then," Knuckles said. "I guess we're running this one solo, huh?"

"Unless the police force of whatever city we wind up in helps us," Tails said.

It was then that the microphone sounded off, and the yellow fox picked it up. "Come in?"

"Hello?" said a voice on the other side. "Is this Sonic?"

"No, it's Tails," replied the fox, recognising the accent. "Is this Dingo?"

"One and the same, mate!" the Aussie replied happily. "Listen, I just got a call from Ash that there was a carjacking. Are you close?"

"We had a slight delay in asking the owners of the car some questions," Tails replied, "but we're on the highway now. About halfway across."

"Ah, right," said Dingo. "Well, just thought that I'd let you know that the bad guys are here, right now."

"Whereabouts are they?" asked Sonic.

"They just got to the city," said Dingo. "One of our speed patrols caught them off guard and was chasing them, but he got knocked off of his bike. He'll be fine, though."

"All right, we're on our way," said Knuckles. "Over and out."

Sonic nodded. "Looks like we'll have to speed up if we want to catch these douche-bags."

"Yeah," Tails spoke. "Who knows how far into the city they could be right now?"

"Let's get there and find out," said Knuckles, stepping on the gas and driving faster.

In the city itself were the two carjackers, taking the vehicle that they'd stolen and moving as quickly as they could through the city. They moved past several houses and stores before finally reaching where they needed to go.

But what they failed to notice was that a Star Light cop, who was a young looking human with dark hair and brown eyes, was nearby, and had seen the car drive through a small alleyway. He managed to sneak around to a safe place nearby the entrance to the alley before speaking into his microphone.

"Star Light, do you read me?"

"Yes, we do," replied the voice on the other line. "What is it?"

"I just caught some possible suspects heading into an alleyway." He paused for a bit. "Should I pursue?"

"Negative," said the base. "Backup is on the way right now. Just wait for them."

"Will do. Over and out."

He sat back against the wall of the alleyway, managing to stay out of site before he heard a car turn the corner close to him. Due to how fast it was going, it was impossible to miss the screeching of the tyres as it reached the corner, parking on the path and stopping as the four inside got out.

"Are you guys the backup?" the human asked.

"Yep," said Sonic. "We're the freelance division. We got a call a while ago about a car being stolen. It started in Green Hill, but they ended up here."

"How'd you know where I was?"

"Star Light got on the horn to us after they finished talking to you," Knuckles replied. "Good thing we were coming up here anyway. The trail was going cold."

The Star Light cop grinned. "Well, thanks for backing me up. My name's Griffiths."

"All right, Griffiths," Sonic spoke. "What's our first course of action here?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"We're just the backup," said Tails. "Are you a fellow rookie?"

The human nodded. "Only been at this a month."

"That's still longer than us," Knuckles smiled. "Just tell us how we should do this, and we'll do it your way."

Griffiths nodded. "All right. They didn't see me at first, and they probably don't know that you're chasing them since you were far away from them in the chase. Now, blue..."

"Sonic," the blue hedgehog said. "Red dude's Knuckles, fox is Tails, and the edge-hog is Shadow."

Griffiths stifled a laugh at the last nickname before going back over his plan. "All right. Sonic, I want you and Shadow to try and box them in from the main entrance to the alley. Block their escape if you can."

"What about the rest of us?" Knuckles asked.

"We're going to try and sneak around the place and see if we can find another way in," said Griffiths. "That way, we cut them off from all sides."

"Eh, there's only two of them," Sonic said. "It'll be easy."

"Might not just be two," Griffiths replied. "All right, you guys ready?"

Sonic and Shadow pulled out their pistols, keeping them at their sides and nodding to the human. He nodded back and walked around to the side of the building with Tails and Knuckles in tow.

As he did, the two hedgehogs remaining walked quickly through the front entrance of the alleyway, holding their guns up. They kept their breathing still as they walked through, spotting the two car thieves as they were taking apart the vehicle.

"Fuck!" one of them said. "Can't find anything in here, man!"

"Just shut up and keep working," said the other one. "There's got to be some good shit in here somewhere..."

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other, nodded, then held their guns towards the carjackers. "Freeze!" they both yelled.

The robbers turned and faced the two hedgehogs. "Aw, shit! Cops!"

"If it helps, we technically ain't cops," Sonic said.

"Yeah, that gives me a total confidence boost."

"Knock it off, shit stain, or I'll boost my foot up to meet your nuts," Shadow warned. "Why are you taking this car apart?"

"Why should we tell you?" asked the other robber. "Will it take away any of our jail time?"

"This is really not the best time to ask that," Sonic replied, catching Knuckles, Tails, and Griffiths in the corner of his eye. "Just answer my friend's question."

"He doesn't seem like the type to have friends," said the first robber. "In fact, he looks a little uncomfortable in that uniform..."

"Wait..." Shadow paused. "I thought that I recognised you."

"You know this guy?" Sonic asked.

The black and red hedgehog nodded. "Back in my days with Rouge, he was someone we stole money from. One of the rare times that I actually stole cash."

"Do you know how hard earned that money was?" the robber asked.

"More like hard stolen," Shadow retorted. "Every time that I stole money, that always felt the worst. Sure, stealing food and clothes isn't the best, but at least that kept me full and warm. I only stole money when I absolutely had to."

"That doesn't make this any better, emo kid!" the robber replied. "You stole what was mine!"

"I stole what was already stolen!" Shadow replied. "That doesn't make either of us right or wrong!"

"And what, just because you're a fake-ass cop, you get to decide what's right and what's wrong?"

"He knows the difference a lot better than you do," Sonic replied. "He might have been wrong in the past, sure. But how about you try growing up with next to nothing? After that, try going through the toughest years of your life with no financial help and nowhere else to turn to. See if you turn out the same!"

"Sonic..." Shadow said.

"He might have done bad shit in the past," the blue hedgehog continued, "but he's made up for it by not just becoming a cop, but by becoming better as a person. And of all of us, he's had the hardest road to travel. So don't you guys even fucking dare to tell us right from wrong when you're doing shit like this. Got it?"

The black and red hedgehog smiled at his friend not only putting down the carjackers and boosting his own confidence, but also because of Sonic himself. He looked more comfortable than ever as a person in an position authority, and his knowledge of right from wrong only served to pay dividends.

"All right, sorry for touching your nerves there," said the thief. "Clearly, I overstepped my boundaries."

"So, what is your plan here?" Shadow asked.

"Well, mostly to sell the scrap metal that we get from these cars if there's nothing of worth in them," the carjacker shrugged.

"And have you found anything?"

"We will have if you let us keep looking," said the other robber.

"Something tells me that we're not going to let you do that," Sonic said. "You ass-hats are surrounded, so give up now and come with us quietly."

"So, you have other cops around?" asked the first robber.

Before Sonic could speak, he saw Tails, Knuckles, and Griffiths being pushed forward at gunpoint. There was only one other carjacker there, but he had a shotgun with him, and it was enough to push the three forward.

That was when another bad guy appeared from behind a nearby dumpster, aiming his gun at Sonic and Shadow. "Drop the guns or we drop your friends."

"Fuck..." Sonic said. "All right, just cool it, okay?" He then lowered his gun down to the ground, as did Shadow. "Better?"

"Much better," said the bad guy. "But the others have to drop their guns too."

Knuckles turned as he heard the shotgun behind him cocking, and he nodded, slowly leaning down to place his gun on the ground, closely followed by Tails and Griffiths soon after, and all three stood up when the deed was done.

"All right, we did what you wanted," said Sonic. "So tell me, what are you going to do now that you have us at your mercy?"

"Well, we have a bunch of cops with us, one of them from this very city. We're all in a far off alleyway, and the bad guys have guns whilst the good guys have nothing more than words and their last breaths. I think that we're going to kill you and find a good place to dump your bodies."

"Like I said," the blue hedgehog replied, "we ain't cops."

"With that armour, those weapons, and that attitude? You're definitely cops." The robber then smiled. "I think that we should kill the Star Light dude first. I mean, he's not with you, so why the fuck should you care?"

Griffiths was hit in the back by the man with the shotgun, causing him to drop to his knees. His hands were still raised, and he took a deep breath as he felt the muzzle of the shotgun press up against the back of his head.

"Any last words?"

Griffiths just breathed through his nose. "Just fucking do it if you're going to do it."

The robber shrugged, cocking his shotgun. As he was about to pull the trigger, however, Tails quickly reached behind his back and pulled out a knife, stabbing it into the side of the shot-gunner, causing him to scream in pain and drop his weapon.

Knuckles quickly picked it up and, without missing a beat, pulled the trigger in the direction of the furthest away bad guy, managing to hit him with some of the buckshot and cause him to fly back before turning his aim to the two who were holding up Sonic and Shadow.

"Let me and my friends go, or your asses are next," the red echidna warned.

The two nodded, quietly going to put their guns down, but they both got a gleam in their eye at the last moment and started firing at the two hedgehogs. Sonic managed to dive and roll out of the way, and Shadow went to move, but suddenly felt strange.

Instead of rolling out of the way, he suddenly found his body just appearing where he'd wanted to go. He went for a roll like Sonic as to move out of the way, and so when he just appeared in this new place, he landed into that roll.

The two robbers still remaining looked on at this. "What the fuck..." said one.

"They're fucking enhanced! We've got to get out of here!" said the other.

As this was going on, the robber that Tails stabbed pulled the blade from his side, going to use it on Tails. Shadow peeked over his cover and saw this, and was about to call the yellow fox's name before Tails' suddenly bolted several feet up into the air to avoid it.

"Holy shit!" he said as he rocketed upwards. His ears flickered as he turned around to see his tails spinning. "I'm... flying? Why am I flying?"

"Get back down here, freak!" called the robber with the knife. "I'm going to cut those tails off! They'd fetch a better price than any car that we could sell!"

Tails smiled. "Maybe you shouldn't focus on me, but on the echidna next to you."

The carjacker turned around to see the red echidna in question. Before either could speak, Knuckles simply twisted the man's arm and caused him to drop the knife, which Griffiths then picked up and threw at the remaining robbers, the blade landing in one of their shoulders perfectly, causing them to yelp in pain.

"Fucking hell!" the uninjured carjacker said, aiming his gun up at Tails. He fired several times, but the yellow fox dodged each one. "Stay still, you stupid dog!"

"I'm a fox, you idiot!" Tails replied. "And once again, don't focus on me!"

The carjacker looked around to see Sonic pick up his gun and fire, the bullet hitting the carjacker in the shin. It was enough to down him and didn't hit anything important, so he fell down, clutching his injured leg.

"Fucking shit!" he yelped out. "If I bleed out before you get me patched up, I'm suing!"

"You're going to bring up the legal system to four dudes who can do whatever the fuck they want?" Sonic asked, grinning at the others, who nodded and played along.

"Yeah, we've got nothing to lose," Tails added as he flew back down. "This wasn't even for our benefit, so we're not going to take any credit. It's all for Griffiths."

"He's the one who actually came up with the plan," said Knuckles, being the only one to sprinkle some truth into the matter. "You all got taken down by one dude who just happened to have some really good outside help."

Shadow walked over to the shot down thief, recognising that it was the one who he stole from many years before. "See that, dickhead? That is right from wrong." He then lifted his shoe and pressed it down slowly and tortuously on the man's wound, causing him to sputter in pain. "This might look wrong, but honestly, it feels right."

"How about you go fuck yourself..." said the robber, his voice taking on a pained tone. "You... you want to tell me about how right from wrong works when you stole money?"

"Stolen money," Shadow grunted, pressing his foot down harder and twisting it back and forth. "I might have taken it, but I was desperate. I was homeless, and hungry, and damn near naked. I took what was already taken, but at least I put it to good use. What's your excuse? What were you going to do with that money that I could have just as easily done if I were anything like you?"

"Probably made a good profit out of that fucking whore that you used to hang around with," the man grunted again, but laughed a bit. "I'll bet that a body like hers would fetch a lot of cash and cock in. And to think, she's even older now. Imagine how good she-"

Shadow instantly pulled out his gun and fired a bullet at the ground to the left of the man's head. "One more word, and the next one will be an inch or so closer to... let's say, right between the eyes."

"He's a damn good shot," Knuckles added on. "He probably could shoot you literally right between your eyes."

"And if you don't want that to happen," Shadow said, his foot now stomping on the thief's wound, "you'll shut the fuck up and wait until Star Light's finest get here to take your ass to jail. You talked about cock, right? Well, maybe there'll be a guy there who can provide it for you."

The thief chuckled. "Come on. I thought that you had nothing to lose, right? Go ahead. Shoot me. Shoot me right fucking now. You've got me where you want me. I'm injured and being held down on the ground against my will with a bullet in my fucking leg, blood pouring everywhere. So what's a little more?"

"You're not worth it." Shadow shook his head and lifted his foot from the man's injured wound. He then looked down at the bottom of his shoe. "Aw... I got blood on it."

The others chuckled, and then Griffiths spoke. "I called them earlier. It won't be long now."

"All right, let's check the others," Sonic said. "I think that one of them might actually be dead."

"I would say my bad, but I honestly don't feel that bad about it," Knuckles shrugged. "He was stealing car parts and was trying to kill us all. Kinda hard to feel guilty after that."

"Before we check them, can I quickly do something?" Shadow asked.

Before anyone could answer his question, the black and red hedgehog walked over to the bad guy with the injured leg. Shadow reached his hands down to spread open the man's legs before stepping back a bit and winding up a foot, kicking the thief directly in his genitals, causing him to reach down as he groaned out lowly in pain.

"Okay," Shadow nodded, "we can check the others now."

"You just had to get that one in there, huh?" Tails said.

"He pushed the Rouge button," Knuckles replied. "You don't do that around Shadow."

"And he says he doesn't care about her," Sonic smirked.

"Want me to kick you in the dick too, blue boy?" Shadow asked. "Because I will."

The blue hedgehog chortled. "I'll pass, thanks." He then went to the bad guy from the dumpster, seeing several bloody holes in his stomach. He reached down to feel the man's pulse, but didn't get anything. "Yeah, the guy that Knuckles shot is definitely dead."

"Maybe we should have checked before I made the call," said Griffiths. "Good thing that I asked for a coroner just in case."

"Yeah, well, we have one confirmed fatality, at least," Sonic said. "The others will live, although one of them may never be able to reproduce."

"We've got enough ass-holes in this world," Shadow shrugged. "We don't need any more aspiring ass-holes to join the ranks."

Tails laughed a bit as his friends' conversation as he checked over the one he himself had stabbed. He saw that he was alive, and checked his stomach wound. "I gave this guy such a light wound, and it was enough to break them off of us."

"That's a good sign," said Knuckles as he looked around. "I've found some other missing car parts here and there, but nothing too concrete to hold them down."

"You find any license plates for them?" asked Griffiths.

"Yeah," the red echidna nodded. "It's only like three, but one was from Green Hill, one from Star Light, and the last one was from Scrap Metal City," Knuckles said.

"Scrap Metal City is the biggest industrial structure in Mobius," Tails noted. "Why wouldn't they just take it apart and sell it there?"

"That city didn't get by on cheap car parts, dude," Sonic said. "It has its industry because of how it was built, not because of what people sold to build it."

"Doesn't your dad have a good pipeline there?" Shadow asked Tails.

"He does," the yellow fox nodded. "In fact, sometimes he even drives there himself to deliver whatever they need. He was a big contributor back in the day, but he couldn't work up there full-time due to jurisdiction rules." He scoffed a bit. "That rule applies to both law officers and construction workers."

"Yeah," Sonic remembered. "He might specialise in cyber parts for people, along with your mum, but they gave them some good tools to help as well."

Shadow's ears then perked up as he heard sirens. "All right, looks like the cavalry arrived."

The others nodded, waiting as a pair of Star Light vehicles pulled up outside the alleyway. The cops that Sonic and the other three recognised from the night of the crash where amongst them, sans the caiman.

"Oh, great. It's you idiots again," said the orange cat.

"We missed you too, dude!" said Sonic.

"Wish I could say the same," Cameron chuckled. "If you're wondering where Walsh is, he's busy, so you just get me and Spencer."

"And Griffiths," Tails replied. "He's a good kid."

"Yeah, he ain't been around long, but he's talented," Spencer replied. "Before you know it, he might even get his own implant."

"Ink first," Griffiths shrugged. "Awesome robot superpowers later."

"Who knows what effect it could have on him?" Tails asked. "He's one of the only human cops that I've seen on any force. Maybe it'll have different effects on him."

"Yeah, maybe," Cameron shrugged. "Anyways, as much as I'd hate to cut this short, we've got a job to do."

"Oh, you mean the one that we just did for you?" Sonic grinned.

"Come on," Spencer added. "If it were all you, there wouldn't just be one fatality, and you probably would have come up with a shitty plan."

"Good thing that your newbie came up with it then," Tails said.

The blue hedgehog laughed a bit and walked over to the cat to shake his hand. "Thanks for taking care of this."

Cameron smiled. "Eh, you guys have to take care of everything if you can now. It'd just be unfair for us to help you in return."

"And this time, we don't get in trouble for it!" said Spencer.

"You didn't get in trouble last time," Knuckles pointed out. "We did. That's why we're freelancers now."

The others nodded in reply, with the exception of Griffiths, who stayed with his fellow Star Light officers. They shook their heads as they watched the freelance group walk off, talking amongst themselves.

"We really should workshop a better name," Sonic said.

"Ooh, I know!" Knuckles said, getting in the driver's seat. "The Fabulous Freelancers!"

"Doesn't quite sound... it doesn't... Sonic stumbled. "Just... no."

"The Freedom Fighters?" Tails said.

"Sounds like something from a comic book," Sonic shrugged. "I like it, but we're not exactly fighting for freedom. We're fighting to help these citizens."

"The Peacekeepers?" Shadow suggested.

"Not bad. At least it's not the Fabulous Freelancers," the blue hedgehog grinned. "But we still need to work on it."

"Eh, it'll come to us," Knuckles shrugged as the engine kicked in. "Let's get back to the base."

"Something tells me that a new name isn't all that we should talk about," Tails shrugged.

"Yeah... that was weird what happened," Shadow said as the drive started.

"What exactly was it that happened to you?" Sonic asked. "The first thing that happened was that we rolled in opposite directions, but then it was like you disappeared for a nanosecond then reappeared like three feet away from where you were."

"Well, what about Tails?" the black and red hedgehog asked. "I've never seen the term fight or flight used quite so literally. I've also never seen the two done at the same time."

"Yeah... I really took off there," Tails said. "It happened during my date with Cosmo when she kissed me. I got excited and started flying a little bit..." He blushed.

"Aw..." the other three said in unison.

"Eh, shut up," the yellow fox smirked.

Sonic laughed and soon pulled himself together. "Well, I think that we should make a turn for Green Hill and see if Rotor's not too busy with a corpse."

Knuckles smiled. "I got no problem with that." He then pressed down on the gas, the car soon hitting the highway and making its way back to Green Hill City.

 **Back at Westopolis with Nack...**

The purple weasel had his hat pulled over his head, with the rim of it covering his eyes as he slept peacefully. Soon, that sleep was interrupted by a shrug on his left shoulder, and his eyes opened to see one of his henchmen speak.

"We're at Manuel's," he said.

"Ah, good," Nack replied. He brushed over his suit, checking for any dirt and smiling to see that he was clean. "Let's go and pay him a visit, shall we?"

Inside the building, Manuel was in a high up catwalk, watching over as two Mobians fought. He watched as several of his men cheered, making new bets on the fly as to who the winner would be.

The bull wore a dark green hoodie, black baggy jeans, and brown combat boots. The two Mobians - a male salamander with green scales and a male spider with black and red stripes - went back and forth at each other.

Things began to come to a head when the salamander pushed back. He slipped a punch from the spider and landed a front kick to his stomach, pushing him back against the cage. The spider was still stunned, and was feebly defending his head as his opponent rained punches on his stomach, landing a hard one that caused the spider to spit up blood and scream in agony before falling to the floor.

Manuel shook his head, grabbing the megaphone from his back. "Call it off!" he yelled to the ground level. "Fight's over!"

The spider was dragged out, but still breathing, and the salamander celebrated before walking out the cage and into a hug from some of his fellow men, not to mention a sum of cash being pushed into his hands.

As Manuel watched, he failed to notice another of his men coming up to him from the left. "Sir, Nack is here."

The bull grinned before picking up the megaphone again. "Gentlemen, we have a special guest star at our door. Please, refrain from any further fights until I return. You know the rules."

The crowd all agreed in a variety of answers and gestures, and Manuel nodded to the one next to him before walking with him past the catwalks. They reached a stair case that led up a floor, coming up to the main base of the building.

The floor for the main base was comprised of black tiles, making any stains easy to clean up. Much like Lara had done with her share of Nack's money, Manuel had spruced his own place up a bit, turning it from a drab warehouse to a drab warehouse with nicer looking floors

Well, there was more to it than that, obviously. The walls were painted up, making the place look more like a gym, even though the only fighting done was very much illegal. Granted, there was an actual gym for Manuel and his men to exercise, but all fighting was done in the cage.

Also on the main floor were a small office where Manuel would mostly reside, a security room with monitors, and a boardroom where the bull himself would make his plans on where to push his guns.

The bull smiled around at his place before opening the door. "Nack. What brings you here?" he asked, stepping aside.

"I'm paying visits to all of my new business associates to see how things are going," the purple weasel replied, stepping through, followed by his two men. "I already said hi to Lara, and after you I'm going to see Beau."

Manuel nodded. "Can I get you anything? Drinks?"

"We're fine, I think," Nack said, turning to his men. "You two want anything?"

"Nah, we're good," they both replied in unison.

The weasel then took a look around. "I see that you did a bit of refurbishing."

"The money that you gave me was more than enough," Manuel replied, "but I didn't spend it all on this. I didn't even spend it all on product."

"The girls, then?"

Manuel nodded. "Yeah. That's not an issue, is it?"

Nack shook his head. "Of course it isn't. You're doing what you think is best to look after them. Setting some money aside for their future doesn't shake our trust in the slightest."

Manuel nodded. "Good."

"So, how are plans going?" Nack asked.

"Very well. We decided to start with a small shipment at first. I've got a reliable Westopolis cop who's bought from me before, but since he knows that I've upgraded, he also knows that it'll cost more, depending."

"Start slow, then work your way up." Nack chuckled and nodded. "I would expect nothing less from you."

Manuel shrugged. "I may run guns and fighting, but I know where to run them to."

"Indeed you do," Nack said. "You mentioned that you've upgraded?"

Manuel smirked. "I'll show you. Right this way, compadre."

The bull turned to walk, and Nack and his men followed. Manuel led them near the back of the base floor to a staircase which he went down, followed by the other two. As they continued the walk, Nack and his men saw the cage.

"You're running one at home?" Nack asked.

"Eh, it makes things interesting," Manuel said. "With my guys making more money with better trainers from the money that you gave me, they make a lot of cash in the underground fighting circuits."

"You left out the word 'illegal', there."

"It's only illegal if it ain't in Westopolis," Manuel replied, continuing down the staircase and to the bottom floor.

He led Nack and his men to the opposite side from the cage, showing a few cells along a wall, all filled with various types of guns. The cells even sorted them out by type; one was full of pistols, another had revolvers, then shotguns, machine guns, SMGs, LMGs, and so on.

"You've got a good mix, here," Nack smiled, seeing some LMGs missing. "You're a little short there."

"That's the first thing that my guy in the force wanted to try out," Manuel said. "He said that they're running low in the force."

"Does the force know where their guns come from?"

"Of course not," Manuel said. "My guy is reliable. He knows what's at stake, so he's not going to put any of our necks on the line."

"That's good. Reliability is such a good quality amongst people like us," Nack said. "See, you and I can reliably trust each other that anything unreliable results in death. Or possibly worse."

"I understand that," Manuel said. "I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Go right ahead."

The bull smiled. "How would you like to not just watch a fight, but call it?"

"I get to pick the fighters?" Nack asked. "I don't see why not."

Manuel smirked, and led Nack back up the staircase to the main catwalk. He then handed the purple weasel his megaphone. "Use this to get their attention and make the fight."

Nack nodded, speaking into the megaphone. "May I have your attention, please?" he said, causing the clamouring Mobians from below to look up to him. He then continued. "For those of you who don't know, I'm Nack. I'm half of the reason that you're all here. The other half is Manuel, whom I trust bought some good fighters to be on his side. In regards to that, I'd like to make a fight."

"Who are you going to pick?" asked one of Nack's men.

Nack smiled and looked around, seeing an eagle with red feathers and hazel eyes, wearing a black tank top, blue jeans and grey boots. "You. And... let's see..." Nack trailed off as he kept searching before settling on a bear with black fur, red eyes, wearing nothing up top, and sporting black jeans and dark blue sneakers. "You."

The two Mobians both nodded and went into the cage. As there wasn't a referee, Nack knew that he had to call it himself, and Manuel spoke. "Tell them to touch gloves."

"A sign of respect?" Nack grinned. "I like it." He spoke into the megaphone. "All right, I want a good, clean fight. Well, as clean as you can make it. No biting, pulling, or attacks to the genitalia. And no weapons. Touch gloves." The two in the cage did. "Now, fight!"

The eagle and bear circled around each other, each searching for an opening before the eagle moved in first, landing a side kick to the bull's left thigh. They both fought orthodox, but the eagle was switching things up a bit more, turning to southpaw and landing a left kick to the bull's stomach.

"That eagle's good," Nack noted.

"Yeah, he's got a kickboxing background," said Manuel. "Was taking some jiu-jitsu as well. He was riding a scholarship, but he got framed for possession of drugs. Nobody believed him, but they couldn't fully prove him guilty where he was, so he wound up here. Then I employed him, and here he is now."

Nack nodded. "What about the bear?"

"He grew up in Westopolis," Manuel said. "He's a friend of mine. One of the first guys that I hired. Not everyone that I bought was new, and he might be older, but he's also a lot smarter."

"A young gun against an older dog, then?" the purple weasel grinned. "Very interesting."

The eagle went for another switch kick, but it was caught and he was soon pushed back up against the cage, his leg still held up. The bear spun and managed to sweep the eagle, taking him down and mounting his chest, beginning to rain down punches.

The eagle threw his arms over his face to protect himself, but he didn't anticipate the shots that would land to his body. He suffered several punches to the point him tasting blood in the back of his mouth, but he kept holding on.

Manuel looked to Nack. "Might be time to call the fight."

Nack shook his head. "It only ends with a KO or a tap out. The kid can hold on for a little longer."

The bear kept landing blow after blow, but he soon felt his arms starting to tire. One of his next strikes was a little slower, and the eagle caught it, and whilst the bear was focused on that, the eagle managed to free his legs and bring them up, wrapping his left leg across the back of the bear's neck, his right draping over until the back of his right knee met his left foot, and he pulled down on the head, forcing the tap.

Nack smiles. "All right, fight's over! The eagle wins with a really impressive triangle choke!"

The two fighters stood up and shook hands before the bear raised the eagle's hand in victory. As the two left, the eagle reached down to his stomach, the punches whilst he was mounted having caught up to him.

"Hell of a fight," Nack said to Manuel. "You really did pick some good guys."

The bull nodded. "We'll keep you posted. Just let me know if you need anything, homes."

"I will," the purple weasel smiled, shaking the bull's hand. "I'd best be on my way. I've got one more place to visit."

"Take care."

"I'll try to," Nack nodded.

He was then seen out by Manuel, all the way back to the front door, and Nack and his men soon reached the car. The weasel got into the back as his men got in the front, starting the car up.

"To Beau's now, sir?" the driver asked.

"If you wouldn't mind," Nack replied, looking to his man in the passenger seat. "Would you mind putting on some music for me?"

"Not at all," the man replied. "What kind?"

"Hmm... something classical," Nack said.

"I've got just the thing."

The purple weasel then grinned and laid back as a melody of violins from an orchestra played. Much like with Lara, he was thankful that things went well with Manuel, who was certainly the most reliable, whereas Lara is the most business-savvy.

All that was left was Beau.

* * *

 **And here it is! Sorry that it took so long. I just had nights where I straight up didn't write, and I had everything there, but I just got lazy. Sorry. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed! I'll see you in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	19. Up To Snuff

With Amy, her day of teaching at Little Hill was coming to a close. She looked around at her adorable students as they sang the alphabet to help learn it better, and she couldn't help but sing along with them. Soon, they were all done, laughing and giggling.

"Good job, everyone!" Amy said. "Now, before I go, it's time to give everyone their sweets!"

"And da gold star?" asked one of the children.

"Yep! Now, let's see..." Amy said, standing up and walking over her students. She wore dark green joggers, a red tank top, and white trainers, and carefully plodded her way around her kids before settling her hand on a small puppy. "Today, the gold star goes to Micky!"

"Yay!" the puppy said. His teacher handed him a gold star, and he put it next to his name on the board. "Dat's my first ever!"

"Congwats!" said another student, hugging the puppy.

Amy smiled at her students, and soon, the bell rang. She quickly went over to her desk to grab the bags of tasty treats and stood by the door that led out to the main halls, reminding the students to take one bag each.

"Dank yew, Miss Wose!" several of the children said. Some even gave her hugs before leaving.

As soon as they were all gone, she went back to grab her jacket and slipped it on before adding her purse to the mix. She quickly took out her phone and sighed when she saw no new messages except a reminder from Rosy to grab some milk. She had just locked up and was about to leave when she turned into a fellow teacher.

"Honey! It's good to see you," said Amy. Honey taught the kids a year above Amy's. Today, Honey wore a black t-shirt, a blue skirt, and dark brown high-heeled boots.

"Likewise," replied the cat. "I see that you're still doing well with your students."

"They're getting better every day," Amy smiled. "It's just nice to help them, really."

Honey smiled. "It's hard to believe that they'll be my students soon."

"We've got a few months," the pink hedgehog reminded. "I ain't giving them up that easily," she added with a grin.

"I thought not," Honey smiled. "And at least they'll know who I am, since I've had to take over classes of yours when you've been sick."

Amy nodded. "True. Thanks for that, by the way."

"Any time," Honey shrugged. "How are you feeling these days?"

"Better," Amy nodded. "The pills I'm taking are much better, and I'm not overdoing it. I'm sticking to my schedule with them."

Honey smiled. "You know, it's funny. Whenever someone needs pills for something, they usually go absolutely haywire when they can't get them. I've seen you run out a fair few times, and you've always been just fine."

"I still panicked a lot back then," Amy admitted. "Luckily, the pharmacy's close to the school, and I make it a rule to go and get some pills when I'm running out and not when I'm all out completely."

The yellow cat nodded. "That's a smart way to do it."

"Thanks."

"So, anything new going on in your life?"

Amy thought about it for a bit. "I had a date the other day."

"Oh? Was he cute?"

"Jesus, you're just like my sister," Amy giggled. "Yes. He was, and still is."

"Well, I hope that he has a job, at least," Honey said.

"It's hard to explain, but I'll tell you what I know," Amy spoke. "He was a cop at Green Hill, then some stupid jurisdiction rules that he and his team broke caused them to lose their jobs, and now they're freelancers."

"So, do they work for anyone?"

"Mostly whoever's willing to pay," Amy said. "I think that they're still operating out of Green Hill, but they're allowed to go to other cities to help them out too."

"That already sounds much better than being a regular cop," Honey chuckled. "You should bring him around for career day."

"How would he explain his career?" Amy smirked. "'Oh, first I was kind of a cop, but then I wasn't, and now I'm sort of still a cop, but not'. That just makes my head hurt."

"You said he was cute," Honey noted. "You almost make him sound dumb with that impression of him."

"It wasn't my intention," Amy giggled sheepishly. "It's just my interpretation of it. It'd help if I knew more."

"So, ask for more," Honey said.

"What?"

"Well, you like the guy, right?"

"Yes."

"And you said he was cute."

"More than cute," Amy said. "He's so... handsome. It's his eyes... they're so beautiful..."

"Well, that should answer your question for you, then," said Honey.

Amy shook her head. "Huh?"

"Ask him out again. Or wait and see if he asks you," Honey said. "I'd rather take the former. Being a freelancer seems like busy work..."

"How did-" Amy stopped herself. "You saw me checking my phone..."

"I did."

"You don't think that it makes me a little..."

"What? Obsessive? Attached?"

"Those are just big words for stalker..." Amy pouted.

"There's no reason to worry," Honey said, putting a reassuring hand on the pink hedgehog's shoulder. "Like I said, just give him some time. Or call him. It's up to you."

Amy sighed. "Thanks, Honey."

"No problem, sugar," the yellow cat replied, smirking a bit. "Now, go on back home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Amy nodded, hugging her friend and fellow teacher before heading to the front to leave the building as Honey went to the back to get her car. Amy saw Honey as she walked out, and waved at her, earning a friendly honk in reply before continuing to the bus-stop.

In record timing, the bus had arrived. Amy paid her fare and went to take a seat on her own, which was easy to find since there weren't many on the bus today. She took over a window seat and pulled her phone from her pocket, dialling Sonic's number.

 **Back with Sonic and the others...**

"All right, here we are!" said Knuckles, pulling up to the front parking lot of Green Hill Police Department. As soon as they left the car and Knuckles locked it up, Sonic felt his phone going off.

He picked it up, smiling as he saw Amy's number. "And who would this be?"

"It's me," the female hedgehog replied. "Amy. From the warehouse, then the jewellery store."

"Not ringing a bell," Sonic teased.

Amy giggled. "I teach kindergarten at Little Hill?"

"Ah, I think I remember," Sonic smirked. "Gorgeous, funny, and intelligent?"

"I was about to say the same about you," Amy flirted.

The blue hedgehog laughed. "It's good to hear from you. How have you been?"

"Not bad," Amy nodded. "Yourself?"

"Also, not bad," Sonic replied. "We got acquainted with our new living quarters this morning as freelancers. I'd like to take you on a tour around it. It's a cool place."

"If I can, just let me know," Amy said. "Unless it's a 'no girls allowed' deal."

"If that were the case, then Knuckles and his curves wouldn't be allowed," Sonic joked.

"Damn straight," the red echidna replied.

Amy laughed a bit. "You up to much?"

"We just reached Green Hill, and we're going to pop in to see if Rotor's got any news for us," Sonic answered. "Yourself?"

"I just finished my school day," Amy said. "It was a pretty good day. I love teaching the kids."

"I'd love to meet them," Sonic admitted. "Maybe I'll clear my schedule if there's a career day on the horizon."

"Ugh... you remind me of a fellow teacher," Amy blushed. "She was asking about you."

"Really?" Sonic asked, intrigued. "What'd you tell her?"

"That you're cute and we had a date."

"And that I'm the best kisser alive, right?"

"I didn't bring that up with her," the pink hedgehog admitted. "She might try and go after you, otherwise."

"So, no third wheel dates?" Sonic asked.

"I'm glad that you said that and not something else," Amy giggled.

Sonic chuckled. "So, are you up for another date?"

"That might be hard, given your more sporadic schedule nowadays," Amy noted.

"True, but the better part about it is that I can make up my own schedule," Sonic said.

"There's a lot of shit that goes on day to day, Sonic," the female hedgehog said. "Are you willing to give that up for a date with me?"

"You have to ask the tough questions, don't you?" the blue hedgehog smiled. "It'll be fine. The other three can take care of things if it comes to it. And besides, wherever we go, we have people from that force to help."

"Fair point," Amy chuckled. "So, when are you up for our date?"

"Maybe the middle of the week?" Sonic asked. "It's only Monday, and tomorrow could also be pretty busy."

"So could Wednesday," Amy laughed.

"True, but I like Wednesdays," Sonic shrugged. "And not just because they're also known as hump day."

"Dammit, you beat me to it," Amy said. "All right. Hump day it is. What time?"

"About between 12:00 and 1:00 pm? Like I said, anything could happen," Sonic shrugged, "but that's a good window for lunch. We could hit up Jade Mountain again."

"Ooh... their ribs are so good..." Amy smiled. "All right, it's a date."

"See you then," Sonic said. "And say hi to Rosy for me!"

"I will!"

"And don't forget to give her a cleavage hug from Tails!" Knuckles added, earning him a swat on his shoulder from the fox.

Amy giggled one last time. "All right, see you on Wednesday." She then hung up.

So did Sonic, chuckling at his echidna friend. "You couldn't help it, could you?"

"Nope," Knuckles said.

"I think that he could," Tails replied, "but he just chose not to."

"I sure hope that Cosmo isn't the jealous type," Knuckles carried on. "Then again, she is green..."

"One more word, and I'll put my foot up your echidnads," Tails jokingly threatened.

"You know that I'm kidding, dude," the red echidna said. "I know that you've got a thing for Cosmo, and she's got one for you."

"You think so?" the yellow fox asked.

"Are you kidding? The way that you two look at and talk to each other is like an awkward teenage romance." Knuckles smiled. "It's honestly kinda cute."

Sonic smiled. "The big fella's right," he admitted. "Now, let's get inside."

The others agreed and entered through the doors. They waved to the front desk before making their turn for the forensics lab, seeing Rotor in his lab coat, light brown cargo pants, a blue t-shirt, and black flat shoes. He was crouched over a table of some sort, but from his angle, they couldn't see what it was that he was working on.

"Ah, there you all are," the walrus said, turning around and smiling at them. "How are you enjoying your new position as freelancers?"

"It's been pretty cool so far," Sonic admitted. "I mean, there's a slight lack of free time, but the best part is that we can make up our own time if we so please."

"True," Rotor said. "Have you gone to see Avery yet?"

"Nope," Tails replied. "Do we need to?"

"Well, it's nothing mission based, but I'm sure that he misses you."

"Aw," Knuckles smiled.

"So, what can I do you guys for?" Rotor asked.

"We have a couple of things to ask of you," Sonic said. "We need to know if you have any new information on Fokus. And we might need you to take some blood samples from us."

"The first one I understand," Rotor began, "but why the second thing?"

"We got into a fight earlier," Shadow said. "I kind of... I don't know how to say it. It was like I moved super quickly from one space to another."

"And I flew ten feet into the air," added Tails. "My tails spun around when one of the bad guys tried to sneak attack me."

"Is that even scientifically possible?" Rotor asked.

"It is if it happened," Knuckles replied. "And, trust us, it happened. We saw it."

The walrus nodded. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Just take off any jackets you might be wearing and roll up any sleeves should you need to."

The four nodded and did as they were instructed, with Tails getting up onto the table first, waiting patiently. Rotor grabbed the right kind of needle, thankful that he didn't need to use the full setup with tubes and syringes.

"It's amazing to think how much medical science has increased along with everything else," Rotor said, moving close to Tails.

"How do you mean?" Knuckles asked.

"Basically, a long time ago, there would have been tubes to help with the extraction of the blood," said the yellow fox.

"Right you are," Rotor smiled. "But thanks to how things are nowadays, all that's required is one needle." He pressed it against the fox's arm as he continued. "What happens is the needle breaks through the skin and reaches the vein or artery, as is the norm. When that needle reaches its destination, it injects what it needs to. Now, normally I would need a syringe and various other apparatus to take blood or some other liquid from someone, but not with these things."

"What do they do?" Sonic asked.

"Watch and learn," Rotor grinned.

The others watched as the walrus pressed the plunger all the way in. "See, what happens is when the needle is pushed in, it creates a small suction tube on the inside of the person's bloodstream, the person in this case being Tails. I won't need much, so this isn't going to take long..." He then pulled the plunger of the needle, the blood of Tails filling it up as he pulled. It was up to about a fifth and he smiled at Tails. "There. All done!"

The yellow fox nodded, looking at his arm. "Huh. It's not bleeding as badly as I thought."

"That's because these needles are special for another reason," the doctor grinned. "The needles themselves are coated in that medicinal paste that was used to patch you guys up after your accident, so when the injection or extraction is finished, the damage isn't as bad. I could have taken as much blood as would be required to fill the needle, and you'd still be fine after it."

"That's pretty awesome, I won't lie," Sonic smiled. "My turn next."

Rotor nodded, grabbing a fresh needle and injecting it into Sonic's arm. "So, have you had any experiences with your own powers?"

The blue hedgehog shook his head. "No. I mean, this morning whilst I was waiting for the others, I did a few laps around my house, but I didn't feel any different."

Rotor chuckled as he injected the needle. "It sounds like you're trying to pick your own power."

Sonic shrugged with his unoccupied arm. "Maybe I'll find out when we start training tomorrow." He then sighed. "I don't know. I guess that speed's always been my thing."

"Considering that you beat the track record at Green Hill Academy, I'm not surprised," Rotor said as he finished. "All right, who's next?"

Shadow stepped up to the plate this time as Rotor got another fresh needle, speaking to the black and red hedgehog. "So... teleportation."

"You know anything about it?" Shadow asked.

"It's a rarely experimented with thing," Rotor admitted as he pushed the needle in. "I know that some police forces have tried using similar cloaking technologies, and have succeeded. Teleportation was always more risky, though." He thought for a moment. "It seems odd to think that something that risky could be put into an implant."

"Well, Espio's got invisibility, and he seems fine," Sonic said.

"True, but Espio was a success story," Rotor pointed out. "He was a willing subject, and the doctors got lucky with him. Granted, he had more going for him with the police department helping out too. But it was a slapdash effort for you guys."

"Well, my father does help with the creation of the implants at our shop," said Tails. "Maybe he had a part in it?"

"That's possible," Rotor shrugged as he pulled the needle from Shadow's arm. "Still, your testing might be the most risky. Teleportation will take quite some time to get control of."

"I'll be okay," Shadow nodded. "Thank you."

"All right, that leaves the big guy," Rotor smiled.

Knuckles shrugged. "I've got the biggest arms here," he smirked as he hopped onto the table.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure that your other half is very pleased with that," Rotor rolled his eyes as he injected the last needle into the red echidna's arm.

"She sure didn't fall in love with him for his personality," Sonic joked.

"If I could use both middle fingers right now, I would," Knuckles grinned.

Rotor laughed as well. "So, what about your powers?"

"The other day when we were in the upper half of Green Hill, the police car that we were in got sabotaged," Knuckles said. "We got out, and I was the only one to hit the car. I punched it, and that punch knocked it back a bit. I chalked it up to a mixture of the anger and adrenaline, but now that I'm thinking back about it, it could have been something more."

"Perhaps your size translates into strength," Rotor said as he finished up. "But we can't be fully sure until I take a look at your samples."

Knuckles nodded. "Thanks," he said, hopping off the table.

"All right, now for the other thing," Sonic said.

"Ah, yes! The other, Fokus-related thing," Rotor smiled. "Well, I've been doing some research on it. I think that I might have found a tie with what the suggestibility part of it is."

"What would that be?" Tails asked.

"A drug called hyoscine, otherwise called scopolamine or, to use its street name, the devil's breath," the walrus said, heading over to his computer wall and typing on the keyboard. "See, devil's breath is a powdery substance that doesn't have any taste or smell to it, so you can spray it into someone's face and they wouldn't feel a thing."

"Except that it's being put into Fokus, along with the skin thing..." Sonic shuddered.

"Yes, the krokodil," Rotor added, bringing up a picture of a filthy looking needle. "I'm still unsure what effects it has when mixed with Fokus, but for now, I can only chalk it up as similar to regular krokodil."

"All we have is the different effects it has depending on if someone has an implant or not," Sonic pointed out.

"True," Rotor nodded. "As you saw the other day, if the person doesn't have an implant, then the effects are much more similar to krokodil. But after getting one, it's more internal damage than external."

"More mental than physical..." Tails said. "There's got to be something beyond just krokodil and devil's breath, right?"

Rotor shrugged. "That's what I'm hoping to find out. And it'd be unfair to say that Fokus switches between effects based on whether or not someone has an implant, as both the drugs that we know of that are inside of it are still highly effective."

The yellow fox nodded. "Maybe traditional heroin?"

"Well, that's kind of a given," said the walrus with a shrug. "I'm trying to figure out what it is that makes it work. There's got to be another element added to it, but it's finding out what that's the issue."

"You'll figure it out," said Sonic.

"Let's hope so," Rotor said. "I'll let you guys know if I come up with anything, in regards to the Fokus or your blood samples."

"Thanks," the blue hedgehog smiled. "Take care."

"You too," Rotor said.

The others also thanked the forensic scientist before leaving the room. They all stepped out to the main floor, their heads turning when they saw Mina and Cosmo wave them over from the front desk.

"Ah, hey there, you two," Sonic smiled. "How have you been?"

"Not bad," Cosmo replied. "How's your new job treating you?"

"Pretty well," Knuckles said. "We've been doing some pretty good work today."

"We heard," Mina smiled. "We heard about your job up in Star Light with those car thieves."

"Yeah..." Tails sadly said. "Hopefully, we can get a new car for that couple who had theirs taken."

"I'm sure that Avery will sort something out," Cosmo said happily.

"So, what are you guys up to next?" asked Mina.

"We were thinking of heading back to our base," said Knuckles. "Why? Got anything for us?"

"That's not really our forte," Cosmo smiled. "But I was wondering if I could steal Tails from you for a bit?"

"What for?" Sonic asked. "Is he in any trouble?"

"Nope," said Mina, starting to explain. "Lunch is coming up, and I already have plans with Ash."

"Jade Mountain?" asked Sonic.

"Pretty much," Mina nodded. "But we're going on our own because we don't like making Cosmo feel like the odd one out all the time."

"That sounds fair," Sonic smiled. "So, is the plan to take Tails out to Jade Mountain with you?"

"Actually... I was wondering if Tails would like to have lunch with me in my dorm," the plant girl admitted.

The yellow fox blushed a bit before nodding. "I'd love to." He then paused for a moment. "Do you have anything at the moment?"

"Actually, I've got some food that just needs a good microwaving," Cosmo giggled. "Do you eat curry?"

Tails chuckled. "I do." He smiled as he relaxed. "When should we do this?"

"I'm free now," said Cosmo, checking her watch. "It's actually about lunch now, so... shall we?"

"I'd love to," Tails chuckled, turning to the others. "You guys can survive for a little bit without me, can't you?"

"I dunno," Sonic shrugged. "We'd need someone fluffy and cute to make up for the lack of Tails. But the fluffiest thing that we have is Shadow's chest."

The black and red hedgehog shrugged. "Sorry to disappoint you."

The blue hedgehog laughed and turned to Tails, sharing a fist-bump with him. "We'll see you later, dude."

"Remember, if anything goes down, just call me," the yellow fox said.

"We will!" Knuckles said as they all left, heading for the red echidna's car.

Sonic chuckled as they all climbed in, taking the shotgun seat. "All right, it's back to base we go."

"Think we can get some training in when we get back?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm too tired for training," said Sonic. "It's been a long enough day as it is, and even with it being lunch, it's still pretty late for it."

"Then how about getting some food of our own and taking a break?" Shadow suggested.

"I could get behind that," Sonic said.

"To the base!" Knuckles smiled, pulling out of the lot.

As they were about to head off, Tails waved goodbye to his friends, smiling as Sonic turned and waved back before showing the peace sign. Knuckles and Shadow also waved back before the red echidna stepped on the gas, making his way back to the base.

"So, now that they're gone," smiled Cosmo, "ready to go and get our lunch?"

"Lead the way, ma'am," Tails smiled.

The plant girl smiled, turning to the stairs. As they were about to make their way there, they caught Ash coming down them. "Hey, guys," he smiled. "Where are you off to?"

"They're going to have lunch in Cosmo's room," Mina giggled.

"Aw... that's so cute!" Ash teased.

"Eh, shut it," Tails smiled. "Have fun at the Jade Mountain."

"We will," the male yellow mongoose smiled, turning to his girlfriend. "Shall we?"

"We shall," she smiled back, hooking her arm with his, turning back to Cosmo and Tails. "See you later!"

"Later," Cosmo waved. She then turned to Tails and kissed his cheek. "Let's get some grub, cutie."

Tails blushed a bit before speaking. "I should forewarn you, I don't have any mints on me this time because this is really rather impromptu. Fun, but impromptu."

"I might have some around," Cosmo smiled. "I liked kissing you the last time, so."

"I liked it too," Tails replied. "Um, kissing you, I mean."

Cosmo giggled, and the two made their way up the stairs to the third floor, heading for Cosmo's room. She used her ID card to enter, and they both went in, heading for the kitchen. Tails took a seat whilst Cosmo got the curries set up, turning to the yellow fox as she set the timer and pushed the start button.

"So, what happened today?" she smiled.

 **Back at Westopolis...**

Nack and his henchmen had just reached the front entrance to Beau's place. Unlike Manuel and Lara, Beau didn't seem too focused on making his setting look as fancy. He did make it look cleaner, but didn't go for the grandiose appeal.

"Looks like he didn't put much thought into it," said the driver.

Nack shrugged as he looked out of his window. "Beau was never one for theatrics. He might be young, but he's easily the most ambitious. He's done well for himself, I feel."

"He's probably the guy that I trust the least," said the other henchman.

"Which is why I do trust him," Nack replied. "You two haven't known him for as long as I have. As I mentioned, he's young. And he's probably got the best sense of humour. But he knows where he stands and what his place is. He knows how much he owes me, and he knows how severe the ramifications are if he doesn't follow suit like the other two." He then took a breath. "Shall we go and say hi?"

"Well, we made it this far," said the driving henchman, exiting the car with the others.

They all made their way to the entrance. Unlike an the extravagance of Lara's brother or the scope of Manuel's warehouse, Beau had settled on a small, abandoned factory that once produced toys.

Nack rang the doorbell, and soon, the snake answered. "Hey there, man. Glad you could make it."

"May we come in?" the purple weasel asked.

"If I said no, I'd probably be dead by now," Beau smiled, stepping aside.

Nack and his two henchmen entered, looking around the factory. Whilst it was small, there was still room enough for all of Beau's employees. Since it was abandoned, none of the machinery worked, which proved beneficial for Beau as he and his men could use what were once conveyor belts as chemistry tables.

"Glad to see your men at work," Nack smiled.

"I did what you told me to do," the snake said, leading the three to the upstairs portion of the factory. "I got rid of my old workers and bought some better ones. I was tired of losing what I was pushing out."

"Did you ever find out who did it?" Nack asked.

"It was a little group of them, about four or five," Beau shrugged. "I didn't bother going after them. There's a good chance that their addictions will kill them before I do."

"True," Nack nodded. "Say, did you ever get around to making any Fokus?"

"No," Beau shook his head, entering his office. "I asked my men, just like you said. Nobody knows jack shit about it. We don't know what's in it, and we barely even know what it does."

The weasel nodded as he and his men followed behind. "I know that you've been busy. I get that." He then reached into his pocket. "So, I'm here to give you the ingredients."

Before Beau could ask what said ingredients were, Nack pulled out a white looking powder, and then two needles; one of which had a golden brown substance, and the other one containing a brown, sludge-like liquid.

"Devil's breath, crank, and krokodil..." Beau said, looking them over and chuckling. "That's what was missing! I knew that the influence part of the drug had to come from somewhere..."

"And that's not all," Nack replied. "What you think is heroin? That's speedball, my friend."

"Crank and coke mixed together..." Beau then laughed. "That explains why some users still seem normal. It doesn't get you too high or too low; it keeps you at that midway point." He looked over the substances. "So, that's it then? That's how Fokus is made?"

"There is one other thing," Nack smiled. "Each one of those drugs has been enhanced by a little something called DiPT. Whilst DiPT normally has more auditory effects on people, I myself worked on this new version to not just have that, but have the desired effect on people both with or without implants."

"What's the difference in the effects?"

"The krokodil works better against those without implants," Nack said. "Obviously, the speedball keeps the same high for both parties, same with the devil's breath. But it's the DiPT that's a key factor." He smiled. "See, it does have the normal effects of DiPT with the auditory stuff, but when mixed with the devil's breath it's a little bit different. It has a bigger influence on the user, and a person will fall under the effects of the devil's breath, causing them to listen to others, whilst the DiPT will kick in a bit later, making them completely ignorant to anything else they're told."

Beau smiled, then paused. "Doesn't DiPT last for two weeks?"

"Like he said, it's a new version," said one of the henchmen. "It lasts for only a day or so. That's usually more than enough time to do what they're told with the devil's breath."

"Okay, what about the speedball?" asked Beau. "I know it has the same effects for both parties, but what else does it mean?"

"It's a good way to keep a user complacent," said Nack. "Since it's a middling high, the effects aren't too serious, and it can help them to listen enough before the DiPT fully takes over."

"And that's how it gets the name..." Beau smiled. "You give them the order, then the DiPT drowns out everything else, and they only do that one thing." He laughed. "That's pretty genius!"

"It is," Nack smiled. "And you, my friend, are going to make it for me."

The python looked over the assortment of drugs. "I mean, I'm not saying no, but I'll need to be shown how."

"Just once, right?" Nack said.

"Just once," Beau nodded. "I do have a quick question."

"Shoot."

"Well, how does the liquid inside get its colour?" asked Beau.

Nack replied by reaching into his back pocket, grabbing a small bag filled with pills. He opened the bag and then held out one hand whilst using his other to empty several pills from the bag into his open hand. He then shows them to Beau.

"They're bright blue in colour..." the snake said.

"Indeed they are," Nack replied. "Not only is this form of DiPT the most dominant drug, considering that it's already a part of all the others, it also needs to be crushed up into the needle as well."

"Yeah... the pill versions are not easy to come by," Beau agreed. "All right, show me how it's done."

The purple weasel smiled before pulling a group of empty needles from his pocket, along with a spoon, a lighter, some more DiPT, a needle already full of krokodil, and small pouches of speedball and devil's breath.

"All right, now that we've got all of the ingredients in a row," Nack smiled, "let's begin."

He started by placing a little bit of the krokodil on the spoon, before adding a little bit of speedball. Beau held the lighter whilst Nack hovered the spoon over the heat to get it to the right temperature, melting the drugs into liquid. He then repeated the process as he added in devil's breath and crushed up a pill of DiPT, running them over the heat and waiting as it all bubbled up. When it did, he quickly grabbed the empty needle and pressed the prick of it against the substance on the spoon, pulling the plunger to extract it. For added effect, he swirled the needle around a bit to get the mixture looking right, smiling in satisfaction as he did.

"And there you have it," Nack said. "One needle full of Fokus, and it's all yours."

"I ain't trying it," Beau chuckled. "But I have a guy who wants to give it a shot." He then walked past Nack and out to the staircase, looking over his workers and smiling as he spotted a jaguar with yellow fur and dark grey spots, wearing a dark blue tank top, baggy brown shorts, and red trainers. "Hey, you!"

The jaguar stopped what he was working on and looked up. "Yes, boss?"

"I've got something to show you, and everyone else," Beau smiled. "You just stay where you are."

Nack chuckled as he watched Beau grab the newly created Fokus and walk out of his office and down the stairs, making his way to the jaguar. Not wanting to waste any time, the snake presented the needle.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked.

The jaguar looked over it. "It looks like heroin on acid."

"Not quite," Beau said. "It's Fokus."

The jaguar grinned. "So, we have a way of making it now?" he asked, hopefully.

"Well, this was just now made with the help of our benefactor in Nack," the python reminded. "In fact, he whipped this one up himself. And I want to see if it works."

The jaguar looked a bit hesitant. "Are you sure about this?"

"Only one way to find out," Beau said. "May I?"

The big cat nodded. "May as well."

Beau smiled and carefully pushed the needle against the jaguar's left arm, pushing it in to break the skin before injecting the substance of Fokus. A few seconds passed before Beau pulled the needle out, leaving about two thirds in there.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Like... like I'm trying so many new things at once..." the jaguar smiled. "Heroin, coke, crack... hell, even beer and weed..."

Beau smiled. "All right, I want you to do something for me."

"What is it?"

"I want you to pass on this recipe to the others. If need be, give them some focus and repeat my instructions to them, and so on," Beau said before then listing the ingredients and the process of making Fokus.

"Understood," the jaguar nodded.

The other workers stopped what they were doing as they watched, and all smiled at what they witnessed. Beau smiled back and then looked up to Nack, shrugging at him. The snake waited at the bottom of the stairs for the purple weasel and his henchmen to come down.

"So, what'd you think?" Beau asked.

"You still have your flair for the dramatic, I see," Nack chuckled, reaching his hand out. "You did a good job, my friend."

Beau nodded and shook Nack's hand. "Thank you. To think... with this knowledge of Fokus and how it works, we could push that more. Maybe we'll win the west side before anyone else gets theirs," he suggested.

"Don't push your luck," Nack said. "The north is all mine."

"Oh?" Beau wondered as their hands broke away. "And what are you doing to make sure of that?"

"Keeping you, Lara, and Manuel employed," Nack said. "Turns out that helping other criminals out is good for your own business."

"Maybe I should try it sometime," Beau smiled, then snapping his fingers. "Shit. I should probably make some more Fokus myself. I forgot to tell my men where to get the ingredients..."

"Do you know where to get them?" asked Nack.

"I know that the ingredients for krokodil are around the west side area," said Beau. "I'm lucky there, at least. Speedball is just heroin and cocaine, so that won't be hard to come by. DiPT will be difficult to obtain, but at least it's more common than devil's breath."

"It is indeed," Nack replied. "When I found it, there wasn't much left going around. But you can get it for medicinal reasons. Plus, it's a nightshade plant, so it can be fairly common."

"Let's just hope that our pharmacies and doctors are as fucked up as our law enforcement," said Beau. "Thanks for the info. It's a huge help."

"You're quite welcome. Anything to help," Nack smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've a date to prepare for tonight."

"Lara?" Beau asked. "I'm pretty sure that she doesn't do dates."

"She's a mature, respectable, classy woman who just so happens to run a brothel," Nack shrugged. "She's as capable of dating as you are at your own craft, and as Manuel is with guns and fighting."

"Fair point," Beau said. "All right, you go on and prepare for your date."

"I will. And remember to keep up the good work."

Beau nodded and waved goodbye as Nack and his henchmen left. They made their way towards their car, with Nack's two men getting into the front whilst the purple weasel himself got into the back.

"So, do you guys trust him a bit better now?" Nack asked.

"We're sorry for doubting you," said one of the henchmen.

"And so you should be," Nack said, his tone remaining calm. "A drug addict he may be, but he knows what he's doing. And thanks to me, he now knows even more."

"I'm just worried about him knowing too much," said the other guard.

"In this business, everyone has to know everything," Nack said. "I haven't withheld a thing from any of those three, and I know that they're not keeping any secrets from me. They know what happens if they do, and I only think that it's fair to extend that same courtesy to them."

"Sorry, sir," said the guard.

Nack smiled. "No need to be sorry. It was just a little misunderstanding."

The guards nodded before the one driving spoke. "Where to?"

"Back home," Nack said. "It's going to be nighttime soon, and as I mentioned, I've a date to prepare for."

"Any requests?" asked the other henchman.

"No," Nack said simply. "I'd like a nice, peaceful drive for a change."

The driver nodded, starting the car and beginning the drive back to the prison. Nack looked out of his window, smiling over Westopolis as it passed in his vision, seeing dilapidated houses and streets, people committing acts of violence, sex, drugs, and any combination of the three, and he saw how much they seemed to be enjoying it.

'Even if this city isn't fully dignified,' he thought to himself, 'at least it isn't boring.'

* * *

 **And that's it for another chapter. I hope that you all liked it, and that the debut of Fokus in full was satisfying for you. Also, quick note about the drugs used to make it; they're all real, and they're all extremely dangerous. So, please, don't try any of them. Especially krokodil. That shit's just nasty. Anyway, I'll see you all next time for another chapter. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	20. Just Before The Dawn

Night was beginning to take over, and back at Green Hill Police Department, Rotor was working hard in his lab. Since he knew that the day wasn't going to fully end any time soon, he decided to take a quick look at the blood samples that he took earlier.

"Let's see if I can't find something about these..." he said to himself.

As he went over to the small plastic cups containing the samples, there was a knock on his door. "Can I come in?"

Rotor turned to see Ash. "Ah, good to see you. Yes, come in."

"Thanks much." The yellow mongoose smiled. "So, what are you up to?"

"I'm looking over the blood samples of Sonic and the others," Rotor said. "They had them taken while they were here earlier."

"Need any help?" Ash asked.

"Not with this," Rotor smiled. "This is my field of expertise, so this is all mine."

Ash nodded, then looking over to see a dead body, its corpse not fully covered by its sheet. Nervously, Ash walked over and went to cover the corpse back up before looking over its arm, seeing skin missing.

"What the hell happened to this guy?" asked Ash.

"If I'm correct in my assumptions," Rotor replied, not looking over, "I believe that it was the Fokus that happened to him."

"Want me to take him to the morgue?" asked Ash.

"If you wouldn't mind," said Rotor, turning to give the mongoose his keys.

"I still find it pretty creepy that the forensics lab is directly next door to a morgue," Ash spoke as he covered the dead body up.

"Well, us forensic scientists need a somewhat disturbing environment," Rotor joked. "Otherwise, everyone would want this job, and we can't have that."

Ash chuckled a bit nervously as he kept heading to the far off side of the lab. He made it to a large metal door at the end, reaching his hand back to grab the keys that he was given. He reached over and unlocked the door before opening it, pushing the gurney with the body inside the morgue.

He looked over the walls, seeing which fridges were being used and which ones weren't. The way that he could tell was a blue light attached to the door of each fridge; if that blue light was on, then the fridge that it was attached to was occupied.

He managed to find an empty freezer and used Rotor's keys once more, this time to unlock and open it up before pulling the tray out. He carefully lifted the body up onto the tray before pushing it back inside the freezer and shutting the door, his body feeling a bit chilly due to the cold air of his surroundings.

He quickly went about locking the fridge back up, and when he was all finished, he turned with the gurney still in hand. He pushed his way back out of the morgue, turning to lock it up behind him before placing the gurney back where it was.

"All done," Ash said, shuddering a bit.

"Cold?" Rotor asked, not turning around.

"No, it's just that the scent of death really gets to me," Ash said, half-joking.

"It shouldn't," Rotor said. "That's why these bodies are refrigerated. They usually don't start rotting this soon in."

"Oh?" The mongoose chuckled. "How long has that body been here, then?"

"About a week," said Rotor. "Give or take."

"It was in this lab for a whole week?" Ash asked.

"Of course it wasn't," Rotor pointed out. "It was in and out of the morgue. I run a checkup on it every now and then for any new information."

"Aren't checkups something usually reserved for doctors in hospital and stuff like that?" Ash smiled a bit. "Why are you looking that body over, anyway? Fokus?"

"You hit the nail on the head right there," Rotor said. "It won't be long before their family will want a funeral for them, but without knowing what I'm dealing with when it comes to Fokus, then I don't know if we can hand them over just yet."

"That's fair," Ash nodded.

The walrus nodded in reply, even though he still wasn't looking over, his eyes focused on his microscope. "Come on... give me something..."

"Did this happen with others when it came to their implants?" asked Ash.

"I've never really had the chance to find out," Rotor admitted. "This is the first time that I've ever looked at the blood of someone with an implant, and these someones that we're talking about have only very vague ideas of what their implants allow them to do." He sighed. "I'm at a huge disadvantage here."

"Something will pop up for you," Ash smiled. "I'm sure of it." He then stopped, thinking for a moment. "How about getting the blood of someone who already knows that their implant does?"

"There'd be no point," Rotor said. "I know that you're talking about comparing the samples, but you have to remember; everyone else here with implants had them tested out, going through multiple trials to give them the right implant for the right type of officer. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow had theirs as a way to at first heal them after their accident. They didn't have a choice, and as a result of that, they don't know what they're capable of."

"Well, what do we know about what they might be able to do so far?" Ash asked.

"Sonic's is the most unclear at the moment," said Rotor. "Of all of them, he's the one that may need the most tests."

"What about the other three?"

"Well, Shadow's implant seems to allow him to somehow move quickly from place to place in the blink of an eye."

"Teleportation?" Ash asked. "Weren't most of those tests failed because they were too dangerous for field operatives?"

"That would be correct," said Rotor. "I know very little on how implants fully operate. Some have a specific ability tied to them already, and others develop their abilities as they grow with the user."

"That could be the case for Sonic and the others," said Ash. "They got their implants as a measure to help heal them after their accident. There's no way that the doctors knew what powers the implants were going to give those four."

"And here I thought you were just the guy that made those cool presentations in the meeting room," Rotor chuckled.

"At least you called them cool," Ash laughed. "I'm going to head off, man. You should too. It's getting late."

"I will when I'm ready," Rotor said. "See you tomorrow."

"Take care," the yellow mongoose replied, leaving through the door.

The purple walrus waved his friend off as he went back to his blood samples. He had four individual microscopes, one for each sample, and went along them as he looked, starting with Tails' sample first.

"Let's take a look here..." he said to himself. He saw the blood cells moving around as normal, but something caught his eye as one of the cells started to detach from the others, ascending to the top of the little slide of glass before coming back down with the others.

Rotor smiled in fascination before quickly jotting down onto a notepad. "Well, Tails seems like a done deal," he said to himself. "Still wouldn't hurt to test his physical skills, though."

He next went to Shadow's sample, looking down the lenses of the microscope. Like with Tails' sample, the cells were moving around normally, but then one of them flashed and appeared on the opposite side of the glass slide.

"Well, that confirms Shadow's ability is what he says it is," Rotor said, jotting on his pad again. "Let's move on."

And move on he did, going to Knuckles' sample next. In comparison to the previous two samples, he noticed immediately that one of them was growing larger than the others and bumped a few cells back, almost far enough to be knocked off the slide.

"Whoa!" he said to himself, instantly jotting down the results. "I guess that Knuckles' sample didn't need all that much studying." He chuckled a bit before breathing. "All right. Three down, one to go."

He then moved on to Sonic's sample, looking over it carefully. He at first saw little movement, and the blood was moving around completely normal. He let out a sigh of disappointment and reached for his pad again before he noticed something.

"Wait a moment..." he said. He zoomed in with the microscope and saw a small blood cell moving quickly around the slide, darting from place to place. Upon seeing it, he began smiling before chuckling in amazement. "This... this is fantastic!" he said, happily jotting down on the pad for the final time.

He turned when he heard a voice speak. "Is everything okay in here?"

Rotor turned around and smiled. "Ah, Lupe! I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

"It's not a disturbance if it's something good," Lupe chuckled. "What happened?"

"It's Sonic's blood..." he said. "It's finally showing me something. I've been looking over these samples all damn day, and barely saw anything, even from Knuckles, Shadow, and Tails' blood samples. But Sonic... I think that we might have the right thing for him."

"What would that be?" Lupe wondered.

"I think that his power might be related to speed in some way," Rotor answered. "Now, I don't know the full capabilities of that, but maybe we can find out tomorrow."

"You're going to be there for the test runs?"

"Of course I will," Rotor said with a nod. "What about you?"

"I would, but there's a good chance of a busy day tomorrow," the female wolf said sadly.

"Ah, yeah. The prison transfer," said Rotor. "I always forget that that's your main position here."

"I'm also pretty good with grenades," Lupe joked.

"Don't I know it," Rotor chuckled. "All right, all that's left to do is call Sonic up and tell him the good news."

"You do that," Lupe nodded, turning to leave. "I'll be getting some sleep in my dorm. That last meeting kicked my ass. Be thankful that you weren't there."

"Oh, I very much am," Rotor chuckled. "See you tomorrow."

"Adios," Lupe waved, leaving.

The purple walrus smiled to himself and pulled out his phone, using it to call up the freelancers' headquarters. After a few rings, the phone was picked up, accompanied soon after by a loud, cheerful exclamation.

"Yo, what's up, doc?" Knuckles said.

"Original, really," Rotor deadpanned. "Could you put Sonic on? I've got some news for him."

"Sure," Knuckles said. He called Sonic over, and soon, the blue hedgehog had the phone.

"Howdy," he said, a bit excited.

"Sorry, did I catch you at a bad time?" Rotor asked.

"Ah, no," Sonic replied. "Sorry for the outburst that you may or may not have heard. I just beat Shadow at Connect Four."

"A true test of your skills as a freelance officer," Rotor chuckled.

"What can I say? It keeps me sharp," Sonic smiled. "So, what do you need me for?"

"It's actually some good news." Rotor smiled. "I just finished analysing all of your blood samples, and at first the results were... let's be kind and say inconclusive."

"What part of this is supposed to be good news?" Sonic asked.

"This part," Rotor replied. "I think that I found out what your implant allows you to do."

"If it's not shooting ice lasers out of my eyes, then I think that you should just hang up," Sonic chuckled.

"Not even close," the purple walrus chuckled. "There's a possibility that you may have super speed."

After a brief pause, Sonic spoke. "So... I can just run really fast?"

"It's possible, yes," Rotor nodded. "We'll have to make sure in your testing tomorrow. But, judging by how things are now, this could be a good breakthrough."

"That honestly sounds awesome, doc," Sonic smiled. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Any time," Rotor smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I should pack up and leave."

"Oh, before you go, could I ask a favour?"

"Sure," the walrus said.

"Could you go and find Tails and tell him that we'll pick him up tomorrow morning?" Sonic asked.

"He didn't go back with you?" Rotor replied.

"No," Sonic shook his head. "After he got the offer for lunch from Cosmo, we haven't heard from him."

"Ah, I see," Rotor said.

"So, would you mind telling him?" the blue hedgehog asked again.

"Um... why not," Rotor shrugged. "It shouldn't take me too long."

"Thank you," Sonic said. "See you tomorrow."

"See you then," Rotor replied.

The two then hung up, and Rotor got all of his stuff packed up, deciding to take it upstairs with him since he had his own dorm room. He decided to take the stairs, and went through the hallway that had Cosmo's room. He reached the right room and knocked.

"Cosmo? You in there?" he called.

Within moments, Cosmo made it to the door and opened it. "Oh, hi, Rotor!" she said. "What can I do for you?"

"I just need to tell Tails something," Rotor said. "Is he in there?"

"Yep," Cosmo nodded, turning her head. "Tails! Rotor wants to talk to you!"

Soon, the yellow fox in question slunk in next to Cosmo, smiling at Rotor. "What's up, dude?"

"Sonic said that he and the others will pick you up tomorrow morning," the purple walrus said.

"Fuck..." Tails mumbled. "I knew that I was forgetting something."

"Eh, don't worry about it," Rotor smiled. "It happens. And besides, you were spending all this time with Cosmo, so."

"Yeah, you're right," Tails smiled. "Thanks for letting me know."

"You're welcome," Rotor said. "Well, I'm off home. I'll see you two crazy kids tomorrow."

"Wait," Tails said. "What about the blood test results?" he asked.

"Well, they were mostly successful," Rotor said. "I think that yours might be flight related, but we won't know until we test it out tomorrow morning."

"Ah, okay," Tails nodded. "What about for Sonic?"

"I'll keep that a surprised for tomorrow," Rotor winked. "Until then, you two take care."

"We will! See you!" the two called as Rotor turned to walk away.

As soon as the purple walrus was downstairs, Cosmo giggled and turned around to face Tails. She instantly closed the door behind her and began kissing him, to which he smiled and kissed back, the two melting into it.

After the two broke, Cosmo spoke first. "All this time we spent talking about your day, and as soon as we begin kissing, Rotor interrupts us."

"Come on, he had some good news," Tails smiled.

"I know, but... I kind missed you," Cosmo said, hugging Tails.

"I missed you too, even though I've spent the last almost twelve hours with you," Tails chuckled.

"Well, how about you tell me the rest of that story of you in Star Light with those car thieves in the alleyway?" Cosmo asked.

"Fine by me," the yellow fox nodded.

The green plant girl smiled again as the two went to her kitchen. Since it was too late to eat, she decided to make herself and Tails some hot cocoa with tiny marshmallows. She filled up the kettle and let it boil as she and Tails spoke.

"So, then what happened after that bad guy tried to attack you?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly, but one moment I was on the ground, and the next I was high up in the sky with my tails spinning around," Tails said.

"Like when we kissed?" Cosmo asked, rubbing her foot against Tails' ankle. It was more in a playful manner if anything.

"Yep, just like when we kissed," Tails laughed a bit at the contact.

"Anything else?" Cosmo asked.

"Yeah," Tails nodded. "Shadow kind of teleported. Somehow."

"What happened, exactly?"

"Well, the bad guys started opening fire, and they were aiming at Sonic and Shadow. Sonic rolled out of the way, and Shadow began moving, but then he suddenly just kinda flashed from one place to another, completely unharmed."

"I'm just glad that none of you got hurt," Cosmo said. "Even though a bad guy died, that's still a casualty."

"Sorry," Tails said. "There was nothing that we could do. And besides, they were bad guys. They tried killing us first. In fact, if we didn't act, then they probably would have killed us."

"Don't remind me," Cosmo shuddered. Suddenly, the kettle boiled, and she stood and went over to it, continuing her talking as she prepared the drinks. "So, you said that it was all that Griffiths kid's plan, right?"

"Indeed," Tails said. "It was a good plan too, if you exclude the part about me, him, and Knuckles getting captured at the start whilst trying to stage a sneak attack."

"Did you hurt anyone?" Cosmo asked as she added the marshmallows.

"I stabbed a guy, but he survived and tried to get me back," said Tails.

"And that was the one who, when he tried getting you back, made you fly?" Cosmo asked, coming back to the table with the drinks.

"I wouldn't say that he made me fly," Tails chuckled. "He tried and failed to kill me with a sneak attack. I don't know how to explain it." He took his drink and placed it on a coaster.

"Well, try," Cosmo said, smiling.

"It was kind of like instinct," Tails said. "Like, whatever my implant wanted me to do, I did it. It kind of forced me to do it, and before I knew what was happening, I was flying."

"Maybe it was partially to do with your tails?" Cosmo suggested. "You got the implant to help repair your spine after the accident, right?"

Tails nodded. "That's correct."

"And you've had your tails since birth?"

"I have indeed."

"And they're connected to your spine?"

"They are..." Tails said, stopping as he pieced it together, grinning at Cosmo. "I see what you're getting at there." He took a sip of his cocoa. "So, you're saying that they might be connected?"

"I do," said Cosmo. "The implants don't just heal whatever part of your body they're attached to. And, as we know by now, your and your friends' implants were given to you all on a whim to help you to heal."

"Yeah, because they usually get tested," Tails said. "But there is a possibility that the implants might be tied in to how the person with it is, right?"

"That's always likely," said Cosmo. "But that does beg the question of why your implant allows you to fly?"

Tails shrugged. "I'm sure that it's nothing symbolic. As a kid, I didn't do much physical activity. I was the bookworm, as you could probably imagine." He chuckled weakly. "But I always liked planes, helicopters, birds... I was always interested in that the most. I've always been fascinated by how the wind works in that way."

Cosmo smiled. "Did you ever think about maybe becoming a pilot?"

"I did," Tails shrugged. "But I didn't focus on that in the academy. I wanted to focus more on my studies and work as a mechanic, like my parents back home."

"They raised you right, didn't they?" the plant girl spoke.

"For the most part, yeah," Tails said. "And they never stopped me from going after what I wanted. They knew that I was serious from the moment that I brought up Green Hill Police Academy."

Cosmo giggled. "I will admit, it was fun watching tapes of you as you took the tests. Your thinking face is so adorable."

"I have a thinking face?" Tails asked, then gasped. "Wait, did you see it earlier when I made the connection with what you were talking about?"

"You did," Cosmo confirmed with a not. "And it was indeed adorable."

"What did it look like?" the yellow fox asked.

"It looked kind of like your eyes were a little bit squinted as you thought, along with the fact that your left ear notched forward a bit," Cosmo smiled.

"My ear notched?" Tails inquired.

"Yeah," Cosmo nodded. "Like, it bent a bit forward."

"Did that happen just now?"

"Nope," Cosmo replied. "Well, yes, but it's happened before. Pretty much all the time, even in recordings."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Cosmo said, unable to hide a snicker. "Some of the officers and teachers holding the tests in those rooms had to stop themselves from laughing because of your notched ear."

"But I thought that it was adorable..." Tails said.

Cosmo stood and reached over. "It is," she smiled, brushing her hand over his. "You yourself are adorable."

"Thank you," Tails blushed a bit. "You're really pretty, Cosmo. And you're one of the nicest people that I've ever met."

The plant girl giggled. "Same about you."

Tails smiled back. "Well, it's getting pretty late. We should finish these drinks then go to bed."

"Sounds good to me," Cosmo nodded.

The two focused on finishing their drinks of hot cocoa, making little bits of small talk as they did. Soon, they were all done, and Cosmo went to put the mugs in the dishwasher when Tails stood up for her.

"I can do it," he said.

"It's not hard to put them in a dishwasher," Cosmo said.

"I know, but I was thinking about cleaning them by hand," Tails said.

"Huh." Cosmo was a bit taken aback. "Well, I don't see why not. I'll go and get ready for bed."

"I'll join you when I'm done," said Tails.

Cosmo nodded and quickly kissed Tails on the cheek before turning around and heading for her bedroom. Tails, meanwhile, focused on cleaning the mugs. The lights of the kitchen were his guide as he cleaned the two drink receptacles, placed them on the drainer when he was done, and dried his hands afterwards.

"I do find it odd that she has both a dishwasher and a normal washing up bowl, but you can never bee too careful," he shrugged. He looked down at the dishwasher to check it. "There's not even anything in there. Eh, cleaning the mugs by hand felt a lot better."

After his ramblings were finished, he made his way for Cosmo's bedroom. The door was shut slightly, but cracked open. Tails didn't see anything at first before opening the door, seeing Cosmo bend over as she took her socks off.

All that she was wearing was a violet coloured bra and panties combo. Tails blushed and immediately went to shut the door again before Cosmo stood straight up, her back facing Tails, and turned to her right to get some pyjamas from a drawer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Tails there, and blushed a bit. "Didn't see you there..." she said softly.

"I'm sorry, Cosmo," the yellow fox said. "It was rude of me to interrupt, not to mention super creepy of me to stand there for as long as I did."

"It wasn't rude, or creepy," Cosmo said, picking out a pyjama top. She unfolded it for a moment before looking thoughtful and putting it back. "I'm thinking no pyjamas tonight."

"Really?" Tails asked, unable to look away from her silk-clad body.

"Yep," she nodded, walking over and kissing him.

He blushed and kissed back, feeling his tails start to spin before he felt her hands tug at his clothes. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"When I said no pyjamas, I mean that for both of us," she winked.

Before Tails could question it, Cosmo began pulling his shirt off. He chuckled as she went to work on his jeans next whilst he kicked his shoes and socks off to make things easier, and before long, she yanked them down.

"There," Cosmo smiled. "No pyjamas."

"So, what now?" Tails asked, a bit nervous.

Cosmo took his hand. "Simple, silly. We go to bed together."

"I noticed how you phrased that," the yellow fox smiled. "Good way of going about it."

The plant girl giggled and pulled Tails gently over to her bed. Since it was a one person job, and Tails was taller, she let him get into bed first. He lifted the quilt up as he waited for her, and in a move that surprised him, she curled up on his lap.

Tails chuckled as he pulled the quilt cover back up over both of them. "All of this bed, and you're curling up on me? Why?"

"Because I wanted to test out if you were as fluffy as you looked," Cosmo shrugged, tracing a finger over his chest. "It's also part of the reason why I wanted you to not wear your pyjamas; I wanted to just feel... well, you."

"Are there any other parts to that reason?" Tails asked.

"Well, it was only fair since you'd already seen me," she giggled.

"Fair point. I won't dispute that," Tails laughed.

"There's also... um..."

"Yes?" Tails asked gently.

"I kinda wanted to see you shirtless..." she blushed. "I wanted to see if you were as sexy as you were cute."

"And?"

"Not too bad," she smiled, kissing his chest softly, working her way up his jaw, chin, and then to his lips.

Tails purred a bit and kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her waist and sitting up with her in the bed. She stayed straddled to his lap and ground her hips against him as their kiss got hotter, with Tails now moving away from her mouth and to her neck, attacking it with soft kisses.

"Mmm... Tails..." Cosmo moaned, grabbed the back of the fox's head and pulling it back a bit.

Tails kissed her neck a bit more before pulling away and laying back down with her still on top of him, before he spoke. "Sorry. I got a bit carried away..."

"It was fine," Cosmo winked. "I didn't mind it. It's just that... well, it's late enough as it is."

"Yeah," Tails nodded. "Good point."

"And we should probably get some sleep right now," she threw in.

"We should," Tails said, nodding once again.

"I mean, we both have a lot of work tomorrow, and if we do this on what's only our second date, it might be moving too fast, and-"

Cosmo was cut off by another kiss to the lips as Tails gently pulled her down. Unlike their steamier kiss just moments ago, this one was much more gentle and tender, and Cosmo melted into it, smiling as she felt Tails' arms wrap around her once more, this time out of comfort rather than hunger.

"It's fine," he said when the kiss broke. "I never imagined that you'd be so cute when you're nervous."

"I guess that I've been taking some lessons from you," she winked.

"Good one," Tails playfully rolled his blue eyes. "We really should get some sleep now."

"Indeed we should," Cosmo said, kissing his lips in a quick peck. "Goodnight, my fluffy, handsome man."

The yellow fox blushed a bit. "Goodnight, my cute plant girl."

The two then settled down and turned off the small lamp at the side of the bed, with that being the only light source left. After they turned it off, Tails got the idea to bring his tails up and wrap them around Cosmo, creating a second layer for her which she snuggled into happily, her cute snoozes indicating her sleep.

Soon, the events of the day caught up to Tails as well, and he fell into the dream world not long after Cosmo did, subconsciously holding her closer and wrapping her up warmer as the two slept together, with smiles on their faces and warmth in their hearts.

 **Meanwhile, back in Westopolis...**

Nack and Lara were in her office bedroom, and the purple weasel was behind the grey tigress, gripping her hips and pumping into her slowly. Their tryst has been going on for nigh on half an hour, and after several position changes and a few earth-shaking orgasms from Lara, yet another was on its way, with Nack sure to fall behind.

"Oh, god!" Lara moaned, feeling her body sag in another climax.

Nack himself let out one final grunt and chuckled. "Fuck, Lara..."

The tigress giggled. "It's been a while for you, hasn't it?" she asked as Nack pulled out, dispensing of the condom that he wore.

"Well, going around and trying to make more deals in different places can really make you miss good pussy." He kissed Lara's neck. "And you, my dear, have some really good pussy..."

"I know where to sell it, and I know how to use it," Lara shrugged, moaning a bit from the kisses on her neck and shoulder. "You know, for a man of your abilities, you're a very gentle lover."

"It's not like I don't have the money for this to not be gentle," Nack smirked. "But when sleeping with your associates, it's best to not put them off too early."

"You're a special one, Nack," Lara said. "This might just be a business fuck, but when you mean business, you really mean business. Honestly, if I didn't have any integrity, we wouldn't be done until you said so."

"But you do have integrity," Nack noted. "And plus, as fun as this was, I do have other things to attend to."

"I understand," Lara nodded. "It's getting late anyway."

"It is indeed," Nack agreed. "And if your girls are to work to their fullest potential, then they should follow your example."

"They do already," Lara chuckled as she put her underwear back on, joining Nack as they both began getting dressed. "Hopefully not too much, though. I'd rather they all be their own girl by taking little bits from me."

"Do any of them have issues with that, by the way?" Nack asked as he slipped his shirt on.

"No. Some of my old girls used to, but with these new ones there hasn't been as many problems."

"That's good to hear," Nack smiled. "I know that I've said it before, but it bares repeating; you've certainly put your money to good use."

"It's something I've always been good at," Lara shrugged. "That and sex."

"Hard to decide which you're better at," Nack chuckled. "Let's just say that you can mix them both well enough not to worry."

"Yeah, that's fair," Lara nodded.

The two stayed in silence for a few moments to focus on getting dressed back up. Soon, they did just that, and Nack turned to Lara once more, pulling her close for a hug and a kiss on the cheek before speaking.

"So sorry for this," he said.

"Don't be," Lara chuckled. "This was a business transaction. And it just so happened to work out paying dividends for both parties."

"And they say that mixing business and pleasure never works..." Nack playfully shook his head, pulling Lara in for another quick kiss.

"Who cares about they?" the grey tiger added, smiling as they broke from the kiss. "I'll see you... when?"

"In a few days," Nack replied. "I'm going to let you, Manuel, and Beau run your own sides for a little while."

"Do they know about this?" asked Lara.

"Not yet, but they did quite impress me when I met them earlier today." He paused for a moment. "Granted, Beau needed a little bit of help, but he's on the right track now."

"You've got to remember, his product was being stolen beforehand," Lara shrugged. "Maybe even after buying better pushers and dealers, he still needed more product given what was stolen?"

"That could be a good reason," Nack said. "I'll need to remember to ask him."

"So, what did you give to Beau to help him?" Lara asked.

"Fokus," Nack shrugged.

"How did you get your hands on it?"

"Well, technically, it was just the ingredients for it. I showed him once, and he picked it up," Nack said.

"He always was good at that," Lara said.

Nack nodded. "I gave him enough to push out for about a week, maybe more. If he's smart, he'll tell some of his guys to get the ingredients. Saves me having to find them for him."

"It helps if he knows where they are in the first place, right?"

"Maybe, but with the way things are in Westopolis, you can't expect too much to say the same for too long." He then bowed to Lara. "I'll see you in a few days. Take care."

"You too," Lara smiled. "If we keep going like this, then I trust that all of our future business transactions will go just as smoothly."

"Let's hope so," Nack said, tipping his hat in respect before turning to leave.

He and his henchmen made it out of the office, and had just reached the bottom of the stairs when a blond rabbit, wearing nothing but sheer black lingerie and a smile, stood and stopped Nack and his men in their tracks. Confused, the purple weasel waited for the rabbit to speak.

"So, would you like me to show you a good time?" she asked.

Nack smiled. "Maybe some other time, sweetheart."

"Well, are you up to much now?" the rabbit asked.

"I've got a lot to do, actually. Next time, I'll see if I can drop by," Nack said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'll bet that you're worth every penny."

"You'll find out next time you're here..." the rabbit winked. "Take care."

Nack chuckled and tipped his hat to her, much like he'd done to Lara earlier, before continuing his leave with his men. They made it outside unabated this time, and Nack sighed as they began walking to the car.

"We really should try and get this thing patched up a bit," said Nack. "Not that it's damaged, but if I'm to be taken seriously around here, I need my ride to look better than... well, this."

"Come on, we literally grabbed the first one that we could find when we got here," said one of his men, shrugging.

"That doesn't mean that we can't get it fixed up," Nack said as they reached the car, getting inside. "We might be in Westopolis, but we're not in Hell itself. We can get this fixed."

"When?"

"Tomorrow," Nack said. "Tonight, I want us to get home and go to sleep."

"Any other plans for tomorrow besides the car?" asked the other henchman.

"Hmm... yes. I should talk to one of my contacts in the local police force. Well, the only contact that I know that I can trust, anyway."

"Do the rest of the force know about you?"

"They know who I am and what I've done here, but none of them are friends of mine. Even the one that I can rely on I don't consider a friend. He's a pawn in this."

"Do you think that he knows that?" asked the first henchman as he started up the car.

"I'm not sure that he cares as long as he gets paid," Nack shrugged.

The car started to take off, and one of the henchmen spoke. "Any requests for the ride back home?"

"No," Nack shook his head. "We'll be getting some sleep when we get back. No need to try and force ourselves to stay awake any longer."

"You sure do sleep a lot," said the one driving as they pulled out of their parking space, beginning the drive back home.

"I like my rest," Nack said. "It keeps my mind ready for whatever's next. And a mind like mine needs to be ready. In Westopolis, anything can happen, whether you make it happen or someone else does."

The drive continued on in relative silence until they got home. There was the occasional verbal exchange, but nothing too important. Soon, they'd made it back to the abandoned prison that Nack had decided to call his home.

"You know how I mentioned about renovating the car?" Nack asked as they left said car.

"Sir?" asked the henchmen, confused.

"We should really do the same for the prison. It's not like we don't have the money, and it could use some sprucing up." The purple weasel shrugged. "It could do with looking a lot less... well, abandoned and prison-like."

"But not today, right?" asked one lackey.

"Not today," Nack nodded.

They all then entered the prison, making their way to the upstairs offices. Nack entered his room, letting the others go to their bedrooms to get their sleep. Nack made it a quick point to have a shower before bed, but that would have to wait.

We quickly sat down at his desk and picked up his phone, dialling 911. "It's Nack. Yeah... okay. Put him on please."

After a few more moments, a voice came through on the other end of the line. "Nack! Buddy! What's up?"

"Come on, Martin, you know that we're not friends," Nack said.

"You always say that," said the cop. "I heard that you were back in town. Haven't kicked up a shit-storm already, have you?"

"Not quite, but I'm getting there," Nack sighed. "You still owe me a favour."

"Does that favour have to be repaid right now?" Martin asked. "Because it's getting late and I really need some sleep."

"Actually, it's not for a few days," the purple weasel admitted.

"Then why the fuck are you calling me up now?" Martin asked, getting exasperated.

"Just to let you know when I need the favour."

"You're lucky I like you," Martin said.

"And that I pay you good money and let you keep your job?"

"That too," the human admitted.

"You know, I've got a lot on you, Martin. We wouldn't want that getting out, now would we?"

"No, we wouldn't."

"And even if you were to change your mind, it would be too late, wouldn't it?"

Martin gulped and paused. "Yes. It would be."

"And why would it be too late?"

"Because, if I don't follow orders, I'll owe you another favour."

"And?"

"And I'll lose my job if I don't help you out."

"Good." Nack grinned. "You're still learning. Keep that in mind, Martin. Have a pleasant night."

"Night."

The two then hung up, and Nack went for a quick shower. After finishing, he chose to remain in his dark red boxers before going to sleep, turning the lamp off at the side of his bed as he smiled to himself.

"Plans keep getting set in motion... and I'm the one who keeps turning the crank," he said to himself. "The next few days will be very fun indeed. But, more importantly, it'll lead to the renovation of Westopolis itself. Murder, sex, violence, drugs, sluts, guns... everything that I love about this place will only grow ever stronger as long as me and the others stay in control. And nobody can take that away from me." He chuckled. "Westopolis belongs to those who are smart enough to know how to survive in it. And when you know how to survive, you learn how to lead. And we will all lead Westopolis to be bigger and bolder. And soon after that... everywhere, everyone, and everything else will follow."

He then kept his sick, twisted grin on his face as he slept, his one fang showing through his mouth. He thought back to his deals with Manuel, Beau, and Lara. More specifically the sealing of the deal with Lara, but not for the wrong reasons; he knew that she meant business, and that she would take her place. Beau and Manuel were both sure to do the same.

Now, it was up to Nack to help them along. He gave them the keys, and they knew how to turn them. The next step would be finding the right doors to open, and if the keys wouldn't work, then they would kick the doors down if need be.

And it finally started to look like it was time to kick some doors down.

* * *

 **Once again, sorry for a late chapter. I initially had trouble with what to call it, and luckily I wound up setting up my next chapter's title in the process. But yeah, sorry for being lazy again. I hope it doesn't happen again, but no promises given the infrequent posting of my last few chapters. Take care, stay tuned, and I'll see you all in the next one.**


	21. Crash Course

A blaring alarm went off next to Sonic's head, and he hazily woke up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before turning it off... after which he then laid back in bed, pulling his quilt up over him and trying to get more sleep.

This didn't last long, as he soon woke up a bit clearer and managed to drag himself out of his bed. Clad in just some dark red boxers, he managed a sleepy shamble over to his bathroom, first urinating before undressing and then hopping into the shower for a quick wash.

He was soon all finished, stepping out to grab his towel when he felt nothing but empty air of where he'd put it; just over the shower curtain. He looked around, seeing only a smaller towel which did very little to hide his modesty, but it'd have to do.

He shrugged and dried himself off before leaving his bathroom, only to find that the clothes that he'd set up beforehand to get changed into were also now gone. He let out a little frustrated growl and looked through his cupboard, managing to find some light blue boxers to change into, followed by a dark green polo shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans, topped off by dark brown boots.

The blue hedgehog sighed as he turned to leave his bedroom, but was stopped by something tugging at the back of his jeans. He turned around as best as he could and found that they he a loose thread that was attached to the cupboard door, and by the time that he'd reach his bedroom door, the jeans felt like they'd shrunk three sizes.

He only grew even more frustrated when he saw more threads, these ones coming from his shirt and the waistband of his boxers, causing him to grow ever more suspicious before finally sighing heavily, having had enough. Soon, the other clothes joined his jeans in terms of how constrictive everything suddenly felt.

"Knuckles!" Sonic called, his jeans still tying him to the cupboard. "And possibly Shadow!" he added.

His door opened up, and Knuckles stood there with his phone, taking a picture as Shadow tried - and failed - not to burst into laughter. "Wow, we got you so good!"

"Shadow laughing?" Sonic pondered aloud. "What kind of world is this?"

"The normal one," Shadow replied, holding a pair of scissors in his hands. "You can tell because I have something sharp in my hands."

"Well, would you mind using that sharp thing to get me out of this?" Sonic said. "Seriously, my ass feels like it's getting a wedgie from two things at the same time. It's like a bad high school flashback."

"On the condition that you don't force us to delete the picture," Knuckles said.

"I'll do that, on the condition that you give me my old clothes and towel back," Sonic countered.

"Touche," Knuckles said. "You've got a deal." He then turned to Shadow. "Edge-head, cut the man free of his bonds! I will go and grab his garments!"

"You said that with way too much enthusiasm," said Shadow, using the scissors to cut the threads.

"This coming from the guy who seemed happy to be holding a sharp object," Sonic pointed out as he was cut free.

"I wasn't planning on doing anything bad to myself with it," Shadow shrugged.

"Oh, that makes it better," Sonic said. "You've improved over the years, I see."

"Can we not make so many jokes about that?" Knuckles said, having returned back with the blue hedgehog's clothes. "It's making even me uncomfortable."

"What? Worried that I'm going to stab you?" said Shadow, closing the scissors and holding them like a knife before mock stabbing Knuckles in the chest with them.

"Even if you did kill him, clean up could be a bitch," Sonic said as he took his new clothes. "Since he's all red anyway, it could be difficult to wash out of his fur."

"Yep," Knuckles agreed, lowering his dark brown pyjama shirt to show off his white crest. "It might even splatter over this."

"Why are we talking so much about killing Knuckles?" Shadow said. "We've got to get dressed, then pick Tails up, not to mention our training starts today."

"Can we get breakfast before all that?" the red echidna asked. "I'm hungry, and I'd like my last meal to be an easy to make pizza."

"Then make it yourself," Sonic smirked. "I ain't no gourmet chef. Now get out of my room so that I can change in peace. You guys should get dressed too."

"Aw... I really wanted to try out those test runs in my jammies," Knuckles shrugged, before chortling a bit and turning back to Sonic. "See you downstairs, dude."

"Later."

Sonic set his clothes aside and quickly dispersed of his old ones, throwing them in the trash with the exception of the boots, instead choosing to leave those by the side of his bed. He put on some black and white boxers with a zigzag pattern, followed by a pale orange sweater and some jeans similar in colour to his previous ones, only this time with an ice design around the calves of them.

He slipped his boots back on before heading downstairs, seeing Knuckles and Shadow already there. True to his word, Knuckles had put a small pizza into the microwave, since it wouldn't take long to cook, and significantly less time to eat.

Knuckles wore a yellow t-shirt with a design of a cartoon pug wearing sunglasses and smoking a toy cigar on it, complete with black jeans and grey trainers; Shadow wore a white t-shirt with a light blue wolf's head design on the left side over a long-sleeved black shirt, along with brown trousers and black boots.

"All right, time to hit up the fridge," Sonic said, noticing Shadow with a bowl of cereal which was chocolate and hoop-shaped. "We still have any of those?"

"Yep," Shadow confirmed with a nod. "Top cupboard, bottom shelf, fourth one across."

Sonic followed his friend's directions, soon finding the box. "Sweet." He pulled it down from the cupboard and opened it up, seeing that there was about half left. He then headed to the fridge to get some milk as soon as the microwave beeped.

"That's me done," said Knuckles, grabbing a tea towel. He used it to pull out the metal tray that had his breakfast on it, setting it down on a counter before grabbing a medium-sized plastic plate, making a quick point to get Sonic a bowl out whilst he was there. "There you go, bud."

"Thanks," Sonic nodded, soon going about his own breakfast.

"So," Knuckles asked as he sat at the kitchen table, "I know that I made a joke about it earlier, but what's the dress code exactly for our tests later?"

"I think we'll have to wear our uniform," shrugged Sonic. "It's not too clunky, and we can move around pretty easily in it."

"Yeah," Shadow agreed. "And the weight didn't seem to affect Tails much when he shot up into the sky like a cute, fluffy rocket."

"What about you, Shadow?" Knuckles asked.

"What about me?" the black and red hedgehog replied.

"Did the armour cause any hindrance when you teleported?"

Shadow shrugged. "I couldn't tell. In all honesty, I felt... weightless. That'd be the best way to describe it."

"Maybe we could take some lessons from you," Knuckles said. "Sonic's been looking a little bit chubby lately."

"Ah, the old days..." Sonic said with a sarcastic sigh before subconsciously putting a hand over his stomach. "And besides, you're one to talk. Roid rage..." he said under his breath.

Shadow shook his head. "Sonic is not chubby, and Knuckles is not juicing."

"Actually, I am," Knuckles replied, standing up. He went to the fridge and grabbed a cup full of orange juice that he'd left in there from earlier.

"You brought your juicer?" Shadow asked.

"I brought my juicer," Knuckles replied with an affirming nod.

"Couldn't make some for the rest of us, huh?" Sonic asked.

"If you wanted some, you could have just said so," Knuckles grinned, grabbing another plastic cup before turning to Shadow. "You up for it?"

The more silent hedgehog shrugged. "Why not."

"How about we take some to Tails when we go pick him up?" Sonic suggested.

"And some breakfast," Knuckles added. "Although, who's to say that he isn't enjoying a nice morning with Cosmo as we speak?"

"Maybe those two won't have made it as far as breakfast," Sonic smirked. "The way they are, I'd be surprised if they could keep their hands off of each other."

"That's your best friend," Shadow said. "You're really going to talk about him like that?"

"Hey, I'm just happy for him, is all," the blue hedgehog said. "In all honesty, Cosmo's a cute girl, and she and Tails make a cute couple."

Knuckles then cleared his throat, getting the attention of the others. "So, does that mean that Tails has lost his v card?"

"I think he lost it in high school," Sonic said. "I did too."

"Not until college for me," Knuckles said. "When I met Shade... that was it, man. That was it for me."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"I mean... well, just that. There's nobody else that can come close to her. Sure, there are other girls who are beautiful, intelligent, and smart, who won't take anybody's bullshit for anything. But..."

"They're not her?" Shadow asked.

Knuckles nodded. "Exactly." He then took a sip of his drink before speaking again. "What about you, edgy?"

"What, sex?" Shadow asked.

"No, I'm asking you if you knew what the square root of a raspberry fruit pie was," Knuckles deadpanned. "Of course I'm talking about sex."

"You go from saying something sweet about Shade to bagging on Shadow if he's lost his virginity?" Sonic said. "Effortless transition, there."

"Thanks. I try," Knuckles said. "So... did you?"

Shadow remained quiet for a bit before speaking. "I did. To Rouge. But... I guess that having someone with that much experience as your first time doesn't do much for your confidence."

"How do you mean?" Sonic asked. "Did she ever do anything you didn't want her to? Like, did she try to force you into anything?"

Shadow shook his head. "No, nothing like that. And when I say experience, I don't mean it like she's done the do with every other hedgehog in the world, but she's got enough to make you question yourself when it comes to bedding her."

"From what I've seen, it seems like the only person that she wants bedding her is you," Knuckles pointed out.

Shadow chuckled a bit. "It wasn't even her fault. It was my first time, I didn't last long, I didn't know what I was doing... but I think that's because of me, mostly. I didn't feel a connection with her at the time."

"What about with Maria?" Sonic asked.

"Are you sure that we can ask that?" Knuckles said, slightly warning Sonic.

Shadow picked up on it. "No, it's fine. Yes, there's a connection with her. I love her, but in kind of a protective brother/sister way. It's not your usual connection in a relationship, but it's more tangible than what I had with Rouge."

"You've got us too, man," Sonic said. "I'm not suggesting that you try sleeping with us, but we do love you, in the manliest, friendliest sort of way."

"I could almost hear you trying to sound butch as you said that," Knuckles grinned.

"Did it work?"

"Almost."

Sonic smiled. "Come on. Let's focus on food and go pick up our friend."

The others agreed, soon finishing their breakfast and juice, Knuckles having handed his friends some fresh cups of the stuff. They decided to forego coffee, choosing to wait until they'd returned with Tails and whoever it was from G.H.P.D. that was going to be observing them.

They hopped into Knuckles' car, with the red echidna cycling through his music collection from his phone. "You know, I'm glad that we like most of the same music."

"Yeah," Sonic agreed. "Shame that most of these bands are dead. Although seeing their live holograms is pretty awesome."

"We should do that," said Shadow.

"Become holograms?" Knuckles asked.

"No. We should see a live show," Shadow replied, chuckling. "It's been a while for me."

"You got to go to a gig?" Sonic asked. "I'm assuming that it was with Rouge."

The black and red hedgehog nodded. "Yep. She stole tickets for us. It was honestly one of the nicest things she did for me back when we were together."

"So, she's not all bad," Sonic said. "Good to know."

"Speaking of bad music," Knuckles said, breaking through the hedgehogs' conversation, "you guys got any requests?"

"Eh, it won't take long," Sonic replied. "Let's go for some Rise Against."

"Any specific album?" Knuckles asked, managing to find the band in question.

"Any will do," Sonic answered.

The red echidna smiled and put on the playlist of songs, setting it to randomise so that the tracks would switch it up. As the music blasted from his phone, which connected to his radio, he started the car up, grinning even further as the engine rumbled to life.

"Let's get going!" he smiled, pulling from the driveway.

 **Meanwhile, in Cosmo's room...**

The plant girl in question was laying back and smiling as she thought back to last night. Her eyes were still closed as she moved her hand around for traces of a certain fluffy companion, but she opened up her eyes when she felt nothing after several seconds.

"Tails?" she groggily called out, wiping her eyes.

"Kitchen!" he called back. "How do you like your eggs?"

Cosmo was confused at the question before sniffing, getting the pleasant waft of bacon, sausage, and eggs up her nose. "Scrambled, please!"

"Scrambled it is!" Tails replied from the kitchen.

Cosmo happily got out of her bed and went to her mirror. She looked over her clothes in the drawers attached to said mirror, and debated putting some on before deciding against it, sticking to wearing her underwear from the night before.

She sneaked out of her bedroom, making sure that the door didn't make any noise as she left through it, and she followed her nose to the source of the smell. To her surprise, she saw Tails from behind, also wearing nothing but his boxers. She giggled silently and crept up to wrap her arms around him from behind.

"Hey there," she said, kissing his neck softly and nuzzling it.

Tails purred a bit at the contact and smiled. "Hi yourself, beautiful."

Cosmo giggled. "So, what's with the undies?" she teased.

"Last night, I was tempted into it by a rather beautiful girl who was also almost naked," Tails winked. "That, and because I didn't know I'd be staying, I forgot to bring a spare change of clothes."

"So, why didn't you change into the ones that you were wearing yesterday?" Cosmo asked.

"I'll get around to it," Tails said. "But I kind of wanted to make you breakfast in bed, minus the part about you waking up and hugging me from behind."

"I can stop that if you want," Cosmo whispered.

Tails finished scrambling and smiled. "Please, don't. I like your touch..."

"Really?"

The yellow fox nodded. "You feel warm. Like, kind and happy warm. Like I could hug you for a long time and not want to let you go. Not even a hug; I could just be near you and feel warm."

Cosmo blushed. "And here I thought that you'd be the warm one, what with all of that fur and all." She then paused and pulled away from the hug to grab his tails. "Not to mention these," she continued, petting them.

Tails smiled and managed to turn around. "How about we go warm up in bed with our breakfast?" he said. "You have trays around, right?"

Cosmo nodded. "I do. I'll go and get ready."

Tails smiled, watching as his girlfriend sauntered off back into the bedroom. He then went back to sorting the food out, making sure that there was enough on each plate before grabbing the trays from the top of the fridge; one for him, and the other for Cosmo.

He decided to bring her her tray first. He smiled as he saw her sat up in bed, awaiting her morning meal. "You seem happy," he noted.

"My cute as all hell boyfriend is making me breakfast in bed, and I get to see him almost naked," Cosmo replied. "What's not to be happy about?"

"Would it help to know that I have coffee prepared too? Shouldn't take too long for the kettle to boil."

"That certainly helps a lot," Cosmo smiled as she picked up her fork and knife.

Tails smiled. "Good." He then kissed her cheek and turned to leave.

"When you come back, could you bring the ketchup?" Cosmo asked.

"Sure thing," Tails said as he kept walking.

He came back to hear the kettle's boiling growing louder, reaching its most deafening point soon before the small switch at the bottom of it flipped back up automatically, signifying that it was finished. Tails quickly grabbed two mugs, poured some coffee beans into them, and then paused for a moment as he came to a realisation.

"How do you like your coffee?" he asked.

"Milk, one sugar," Cosmo replied.

Tails made the drink as she requested before making his own. Happy with his work, he put both mugs onto his tray before quickly grabbing the ketchup from the fridge, the red sauce joining the other items on his tray.

He soon made it back to the bedroom, holding his tray close to Cosmo. "Your coffee and ketchup, madam."

"Thank you, kind sir," Cosmo smiled as she took the items. During Tails' absence, she'd eaten a few strips of bacon and one of the sausages, and she felt the need to state her opinion on her boyfriend's cooking. "So, this is actually really good."

"You sound surprised," Tails teased as he sat down with her, moving his mug to a small table on the side of the bed with a coaster.

"You know what I mean," the green girl smiled, doing the same with her own mug. "Honestly, it's a nice surprise. How'd you learn to cook like this?"

"My mother," Tails said. "Turns out that she's not just a dab hand as a mechanic; she's a damn good cook too."

"So, is this food a family recipe or anything?" Cosmo said as she sprayed some ketchup in a huge glob on her plate of food.

"Nope," Tails shook his head. "Just regular bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs."

"Well, either way, it tastes amazing," Cosmo said, leaning over to kiss Tails' cheek. "Thank you for doing this for me."

"No problem," the yellow fox smiled, blushing slightly at the kiss.

Meanwhile, just outside, Knuckles had pulled up to the Green Hill parking lot. He found a space to park before leaving the car, followed by his friends. They all walked through the doors of the Green Hill building.

"We're back again, bitches!" Knuckles called. "No offence to the women who work here, of course."

"None taken," Mina giggled from the desk.

"Isn't it a bit early to be behind the desk?" Sonic asked as he and the others walked over. "Don't you have time for breakfast?"

Mina pulled up a breakfast bar. "Strawberry. My favourite."

"You don't sound too enthused about it," said Shadow.

"Well, I haven't eaten it yet," Mina shrugged. "You don't sound too enthused about anything, yet I'm sure that you had a good breakfast."

"Good point," Shadow smirked.

Sonic chuckled. "All right, you know why we're here. Should we just go up to him?"

"I don't see why not," the female mongoose said. "But be sure to knock first. I know that you can't barge in there anyway, but just be careful about it."

"Ah," Knuckles said. "The old bow-chicka-wow-wow."

Sonic punched his red friend in the arm before turning to Mina and smiling. "Thanks. We'll go get him. Got a big day."

"Good luck with that, by the way!" Mina called as they turned to leave.

"Thank you!"

Soon, they reached the elevator and took it up to the third floor without much hassle. Not wasting any time, they headed for the main corridors where the rooms were. However, there was one slight drawback.

"So..." Knuckles spoke, "does anybody know where Cosmo's room actually is?"

"Oh yeah," Sonic said. "Come to think of it, we never did get shown where it was."

"Well, we weren't here for all that long," Shadow said. "Maybe she would have if she was given the chance, but she just never did."

Sonic then stopped to think for a moment. "All right, let's check the corridors. Some of the rooms should still be occupied, so let's just look up and down and we'll be able to find Cosmo's room eventually."

Knuckles then gets a whiff up his nose. "Or we could just follow that smell."

Sonic sniffed the air as well. "Bacon?"

"And other stuff too," Knuckles replied, turning to the other two. "You don't think..."

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Lead the way, bloodhound."

"Bloodhound..." Knuckles smiled. "I like that. Might make a cool code name someday."

Sonic smiled before urging Knuckles to follow his nose. The red echidna nodded and led them across to one of the closer corridors. He kept following his nose before stopping by at one of the rooms, seeing the door closed.

"This is it," he said. "Should we?"

"Knock first," Shadow reminded.

"Right." Knuckles reached out a hand and tapped it several times against the door. Soon, footsteps were heard, and the door opened up, revealing Tails. "Hi there, buddy," Knuckles spoke.

"Oh, uh... kinda forgot you guys were coming over..." Tails said.

"We can tell from the dishevelled fur on your face and the fact that you're only wearing some boxers," said Sonic. "Do you mind putting some clothes on?"

Tails nodded. "On it. Just wait here."

The yellow fox went back to the bedroom, seeing that Cosmo had finished her food. He quickly leaned down to kiss her cheek as he took her tray to the kitchen, removing the plate from it and putting it in the washing up bowl before returning to Cosmo once more.

"Is that them?" the plant girl asked.

"It is indeed," Tails replied, looking around for his clothes from yesterday. "Are you going to be at the test run?"

"Sorry," Cosmo said. "I don't think that I can make it."

"It's fine," Tails smiled as he found his clothes.

"So, how do you think Knuckles found us?" Cosmo asked.

"He must have smelled the food when I was throwing mine away," Tails said. "He's got a nose like a damn bloodhound."

"Yeah... I did find it weird how they found us when I never told any of you where my room was," Cosmo said. "They probably should have given either of us a phone call to see where it was."

"Eh, at least they had the common courtesy to knock first," Tails smiled. "All right... I should probably I get dressed and go back to the base with the guys. See you later?"

"If you can make it," Cosmo smiled. "Take care and go ace your test. Good luck."

"Thank you," Tails smiled.

He then stole one more quick peck on the lips from Cosmo before focusing on getting dressed back up. Withing a few more moments, he was ready, turning to wave goodbye at the plant girl who was also getting changed before reaching the door, opening it and exiting to see the faces of his friends.

"Hey, guys," he smiled. "Ready to go?"

"We were waiting on you," Sonic smiled. "Come on, we've got a big test today."

"And you might need a change of clothes," Knuckles said as they began walking.

"I don't think that'll matter," said Sonic. "Judging by how the test might go, I think we'll be wearing our new uniforms."

"Yeah," Tails said. "I mean, we wore those training ones back at the academy, so it makes sense."

"You even wore yours when you did your studying," Shadow noted as they reached the elevator.

"You've got to be prepared for any situation. You never know when you'll need a bulletproof vest," the yellow fox shrugged.

"What if the killer uses a knife instead?" Knuckles asked.

"Or just aims for your head?" Shadow added.

"And you wind up dead?" Sonic said.

The red echidna chuckled. "See? I told you we should have become a rap group!"

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Shame we don't really listen to it."

"I do," Shadow spoke. "I mean, I listen to it more than you guys, but still."

"Fair enough."

Sonic then pressed the button and waited for the elevator, which soon dinged in response. The four got onto it, taking it down to the ground floor before leaving, making their way to the front door with a few friendly nods, waves, or both to Mina.

"Good luck!" she called to them as they left.

"Thanks!" they replied in unison. They then briefly looked at each other, processing the situation's weirdness in their heads. They then shrugged it off and left the doors to see Avery and Rotor opening the doors of a G.H.P.D. car, almost stepping into it.

"Hey there, boss!" Sonic called to the bear.

"Former boss," Avery reminded, unable to hide the smile in his tone. "So, are you guys ready for your test?"

"As long as there's no urine sampling involved, I think we're good," Knuckles replied.

"We already got your blood," said Rotor. "It's way better than urine for tests."

"I'm kind of disgusted by the fact that you know that," Avery said.

"I spend almost all of my day around dead bodies. I've got to find a way to occupy myself," he said.

"Wait, I remember reading that paper," said Tails. "So, the testing battle between blood and urine was discovered purely on a whim?"

"Pretty much," Rotor nodded. "Used my own as a first run, then asked some of the higher-ups to help me confirm it. What started as a stupid little experiment is actually used by most doctors today in medicine."

"A guy who works in a police morgue inspiring a new wave of body testing because he felt like it..." Sonic grinned. "What a world we live in."

"As impressive as it is, we're burning daylight," Avery said.

"Why the rush, boss?" Sonic said.

"I just have a busy day today," Avery answered. "In regards to where you guys are allowed to operate."

"What happened?" said Tails. "I thought that we were allowed to run an operation pretty much anywhere."

The bear nodded. "True. But some departments have reviewed your actions as reckless and risky, claiming that you put others in danger." He then held his hands up in defence. "Their words. Not mine."

"We can still run in Green Hill and Star Light, right?" Shadow asked.

"Yes," Avery. "And there are others, like Aqua Lake and Scrap Metal City, which are fine with it. One that I'm having issue with is Marble Stone. And Sky High has also had a thing or two to say about you, neither of which were very good."

"What about Westopolis?" asked Sonic.

"You could run a parade through that city and nobody would care," said Rotor. "There is neither law nor order up there; just a bunch of psychos, rapists, whores, and junkies. Sometimes all four at the same time."

The blue hedgehog had a sheepish look on his face. "I mean, I wasn't actually going to go there. Was just a suggestion."

"Good," Knuckles said. "Because I ain't going to Westopolis even if my life depended on it."

"Yeah... I'm all for justice and putting bad guys away, but I wouldn't touch that place with a ten foot pole being held by someone who's ten feet in front of me," said Tails.

"All right, I get it," Sonic said, sighing and turning to Shadow. "Do you have any other comments to add on?"

"Just that it's a really fucking stupid idea, and you're stupid for suggesting it," came Shadow's blunt reply, a little smile on his lips as he said it.

"Boy, am I glad that I'm friends with you guys," Sonic said, sarcasm practically frothing from his mouth. "Come on, let's get to the testing."

"You boys lead the way, and we'll follow," Avery said, getting into his car. Rotor soon followed suit with his commander.

"Sure thing," Knuckles replied, getting into the car. The other three soon fell behind, with Shadow taking the shotgun seat.

Within moments, Knuckles had started the car, soon pulling out of the parking lot and driving in reverse to the main road. He managed to make a U-turn to get his car facing the right way, and waited for Avery to do the same.

Soon after, both vehicles were on their way to the new headquarters of the freelancers. There wasn't any talking between the two cars as they drove, settling on something nice and relaxing before finally reaching the base.

"All right, here we are," said Sonic. "Our new home sweet home."

Rotor whistled as he exited the police car. "Wow. G.H.P.D. really outdid themselves."

"Wait until you see the inside," said Avery. "But don't expect a house tour or anything. We're here to run the tests then get back to our base."

"Understood," Rotor said, turning to Sonic. "You lead the way."

"So, it really is just you two," said Sonic, opening the front door to let the others in.

"Yeah," Avery replied. "As we've said, everyone else is pretty much swamped."

"There is one other thing, though," said Rotor.

"And what would that be?" Tails asked, growing a bit suspicious.

"We need to borrow one of your laptops from the communications room and record a live feed of you guys for those that sit in the meeting room," said Avery as everyone else filed into the building.

"How did you know about..." Tails began, but then paused. "Oh, yeah. You guys built this place."

"Well, we oversaw the majority of the process," said Rotor with a small chuckle. "The real workers just followed our instructions."

"With that in mind," Knuckles began, "you probably could have just borrowed one without asking. We would have been fine with it."

"I know, but it's always nice to ask," Avery smiled. "Now, shall we?"

Sonic nodded and went to the comm room to get a laptop. Checking that it was fully charged, he typed in the password to open it up before handing it over to Rotor, who searched for and eventually found the laptop's camera.

"All right, Rotor will finish setting this up," Avery said. "You four get to the training room part of the gym and get your new uniforms on."

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow nodded and quickly headed for the gym. They wasted little time in reaching their new uniforms, taking them down from their hooks before looking at each other and realising something.

"We should probably get changed separately," said Sonic.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Knuckles replied. "Up to our rooms?"

"Nah, let's just do it here," the blue hedgehog replied. "But in separate parts of the gym where we can't see each other's junk. That'd be preferable."

"We're all wearing underwear," Shadow pointed out.

"Doesn't mean I want to get almost naked with you, dude," Sonic said.

"All right, fine," said Shadow. "Picky, picky..."

With that, they split off into separate sections of the gym. Tails decided to get changed near the smaller weights as there was some shade cast over the area, meaning that he would be much more secluded. Shadow got changed near the running machines, Sonic near the guns and armour itself, and Knuckles down by the rowing machines.

The four all met back up in the middle, with Knuckles speaking first. "So, how come it wasn't this awkward when we first got into our suits?"

"Because we took them into our rooms upstairs to change," Tails pointed out. "Luckily, we had the time do that. With what's happening now, we had to make do with our current surroundings."

"Good point," the red echidna replied as the door knocked. "I'll get it." He went over to the door and opened it, seeing Avery and Rotor. He stepped aside to let the two in. "You two good to go?" he asked them.

"Yep," Rotor affirmed. "Yourselves?"

"Well, it's too late to go back on it by this point," Tails chuckled.

"All right, we're going to try you out one by one," said Avery. "First, let's get to the main obstacle course area of the room."

"Should I activate it first?" Rotor asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot," smiled Avery. "Go right ahead."

The purple walrus nodded and set his laptop on a nearby table. He began tying something into it that the others, sans Avery, couldn't make out. After a while, a loud clicking sound was heard, and the others all began to look around.

"You might want to move over here," Avery said. "It'll get you out of the way."

The others nodded and went over to him as they felt the floor began to shift. The obstacle course that they were on soon cleared out; nets, jumping bars, and all the other usual apparatus were simply moved to the side as the floor opened up.

"What the fuck..." Sonic muttered.

"This isn't even the best part," Rotor chuckled.

Before the blue hedgehog could respond, something appeared through the floor. Instead of their usual course, there was a more advanced looking version, similar to that of their training courses at the academy. There were some holographic images on display, and Sonic reached over to touch a metal bar, expecting his hand to phase through it, only to be slightly shocked when his hand touched solid metal.

"Hard light technology, right?" asked Tails.

"Indeed it is," Rotor nodded. "Physical constructs made from holographic material. This'll suit you buys much better for what we have in store for your tests."

"Well, there is a lot of it," Knuckles pointed out. "Do we all go at once, or what?"

"Actually, I'd like to start with Shadow," said Avery.

"Sir?" the black and red hedgehog asked.

"You'll be fine," Rotor said. "Oh, I should change the course for him. Give me a moment." He typed more into the keyboard and suddenly, the images changed from an advanced obstacle course to something different; it start with a pair of armed gunmen on either side, followed by a group of metallic balls with spinning blades going around in a circle, finally topped off by what looked like some form of large, metallic shark.

"The first two I get," said Shadow, "but what's with the shark?"

"I could change it to something else, if you'd like," said Rotor. "Perhaps an ill-tempered mutated sea-bass with a laser-beam attached to its head?"

"No, a shark is fine," Shadow said. "Hologram or not, it's bad enough without the lasers."

The others enjoyed a chuckle at that, and Avery spoke. "All right, the drill is simple. You just have to teleport past each obstacle, and you're all done. I'm going to count down from three, and when I say go, you go. Got it?"

"Got it."

"All right. Three... two... one... go!"

Shadow looked quickly at the gunmen and moved forward in front of them, risking getting shot to try and pass. He managed to back away before they fired, then looked back and forth between them and took a deep breath.

'It's okay, Shadow,' he thought to himself. 'You can do this. It's just like yesterday. You had a bad guy shooting at you, and it just happened. This is no different...'

He then took another breath and looked past the gunmen to just before the next trap, and closed his eyes in concentration. Before he knew it, he had suddenly transported himself from the starting point to past the gunmen, stopping and turning around to see them firing at each other.

"All right!" called Sonic. "Nice one, dude!"

"Next one's easy!" Tails added. "Those balls are on a circle! You might not even need to teleport!"

Rotor chuckled at this and typed into the laptop again, causing the metal spheres to go from their circular formation to an X-shape. That shape then began spinning around at a fast pace, causing the smile from Sonic and Tails' faces to drop.

"Okay! Never mind what we just said!" Sonic spoke. "Just do what you did last time!"

Shadow nodded in reply, still looking at the trap ahead of him. Instead of moving too quickly, he waited and watched as he tried to look for an opening. Given the speed of the blades, it was not going to be easy to make it through. But he just needed one good shot...

"There..." he muttered to himself. By will alone, he managed to control his power and focus it on that one point that he spotted through the gap, teleporting through it and making it to the other side.

"Way to go!" Knuckles said. "One last one!"

"Ah, we forgot to add something," Avery said. "Rotor, if you would."

The purple walrus grinned and typed again into the laptop. Instead of one metal shark, there were now six, three on each side. Both dove back and forth over the platform before Shadow, splashing into holographic water on either side. Some of those splashes caused the water to land on the platform itself, such were the technological advancements of this training program.

"We should probably stop talking after each time he passes something," Tails said to the other two.

"Good point," Sonic said.

Shadow looked over at his friends. "It's cool, guys. I've got this. It's just like at the academy."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "If you say so."

The black and red hedgehog then turned back to the test before him, seeing the sharks diving back and forth. They weren't in the air, but passing over the ground of the platform itself, making it almost a tightrope. Add the possibility of slipping on the water, and Shadow knew that he was going to have a tough time of it.

Still, he managed to remain calm and reserved, much like he was earlier. He tried to look for a pattern in the sharks, much like he did for the balls. There wasn't even any respite to walk past them when they weren't diving, since they weren't going at the same time for each side, but one after the other. And they were moving really fast.

Shadow tried to focus his gaze past the sharks, looking at the finish line, which was even complete with a holographic red banner to run through. He chuckled as he noticed this, and soon went back to being stoic as ever, looking at the banner.

He looked back and forth as the sharks dived in their pattern, moving quickly and not even giving a nanosecond of free time to just walk past them. Shadow had to get the end in sight and get it quick before moving, and he knew that. So, he got his line of sight on the target, and with a smirk, he made his move.

He suddenly reached the end of the line, reaching just before the banner. He stopped to turn and look back at the traps he'd just beat before turning back around, shrugging, and stepping forward, putting a hand on the banner which caused the holographic display to vanish.

He stood proudly to the sound of applause and smiled as he turned around before falling to one knee. The three friends applauding him suddenly became more worried and came over to help him up.

"You okay there, buddy?" Tails asked him.

"I'll be fine..." Shadow replied. "That can really... take the wind... out of you..." He kept panting tiredly. "Be careful on... your turns..."

Avery then walked over. "Shadow, I'm impressed. You used your power well, and you managed to pick your spots before teleporting."

"Thank you... sir..."

"You're welcome," the bear smiled. "But just as as friendly reminder: be careful. I know that you paced yourself reasonably well, but you can't use too much power too quickly. But don't worry. It'll recover over time, and you'll get used to it."

"Will that be the same for the rest of us?" Tails asked.

"Maybe so," Avery shrugged. "That reminds me, you're up next."

Shadow walked back over to the others as Tails took his place, turning to Rotor. "Are you going to keep the course the same?"

"No," the walrus replied. "I've got some ideas..." He then trailed off as he typed into the laptop. "Let's try... this."

Suddenly, all of the holograms from before were now completely gone, disappearing into thin air. This time, three new traps appeared; the first one looked like a simple platform raised high, but the spikes popping in and out of its top and bottom were a different story. The fact that there were two more platforms didn't help. The next trap looked like a pool of lava, with balls of the molten rock shooting high up into the air. The third and final trap looked like a windmill of sorts, with little electrical sparks flying around the blades of the windmill.

"Well, this should be fun," Tails said. "At least I can just skip past the platforms."

"Actually, you have to fly up and jump past each one," said Rotor. "I forgot about this part." He then typed into the laptop and the bit of floor under the platforms suddenly became adorned with spikes.

"Well, no running start for me, I guess," the yellow fox said drily.

"All right, time for a countdown," said Avery. "Three... two... one... go!"

Tails jumped high into the air and tried to get his tails to work, but nothing happened. "Come on, dammit..." he said under his breath.

"What's wrong?" asked Avery.

"When we first saw him fly, he was being attacked from behind," Knuckles said. "It was literally fight or flight."

"Well, we don't have that option," said Avery. "I can't point a gun at him and threaten to shoot. Mostly because I left my gun back at the department."

"And there's no point going over to ours," said Shadow. "Wait..."

"What?" Sonic asked.

The black and red hedgehog grinned as he looked over at Tails. "Just think of Cosmo!"

"Aw, come on!" Tails replied. "That's not even remotely funny!"

"It wasn't meant to be!" Shadow said. "Just try to think of her!"

Tails shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh before shrugging and trying it anyway. As soon as an image of her came into his mind, he couldn't wipe the smile from his face. He thought about that morning with her, making her breakfast and a drink in bed. Suddenly, he felt himself rising from the ground.

"It's working?" he asked himself lowly. He then turned around to see his tails spinning. "It's working!"

"Keep it up, dude!" Sonic said. "You've got this!"

Tails chuckled happily and soon made it to the three platforms in question. He managed to control himself and flew down to above the first platform. One of his ears flicked as he heard Rotor typing again, and this time, the platforms began moving from side to side.

"Here goes nothing..." Tails said, slowly listing forward. The platform in front of him moved somewhat erratically, with the spikes popping in and out completely out of sync with the movement. Tails took a breath and moved around, knowing that the spikes under and on top of the platform would lead to only one way to move: straight forward.

So, he looked over the platforms, still staying in flight. They didn't really have a pattern, and he was still stuck before the first on. So, he simply shrugged and closed his eyes before propelling himself forward, trying not to focus on the platforms, but on the end. Well, the next trap at least.

He used his ears to listen to the sounds of the platforms, but the main reason that he was thinking about Cosmo was both to keep himself in flight and to keep himself focused. If he could focus on something else, then he wouldn't have a problem.

He was broken from this by Knuckles' voice calling out. "Slow down, dude!"

Tails shook his head and opened his eyes, looking directly forward and coming into very close contact with a flaming ball, almost grazing past his nose. Tails sheepishly looked down and went back to the ground, knowing that it was safe now that he was past the spikes.

"Good work so far, but you're not done yet," said Rotor.

"I know," Tails nodded, soon willing himself to begin flying again, the thoughts of Cosmo only helping to accelerate the process.

The yellow fox was soon back in the air, but not as high up off of the ground as he was for the first trap. He wanted to keep at a mid-level of flight to make it easier to get past the jumping balls of fire.

Instead of closing his eyes to pass the trap, he kept them open this time, but was still very much focused on reaching the end of it. Whilst there weren't many fireballs launching up, the pool was large, and given the huge scope of their gym, it wasn't hard to see why it would be a problem.

So, he just did what he did last time, only without closing his eyes. He began moving forward, judging the pattern of the fireballs. He only sped himself up when he had to, his tails not even slowing down for a little bit as he kept moving. Soon, he reached the end, and just barely felt the sting of the last ball graze his tail before landing at the final trap.

"Goodness gracious..." Knuckles quipped to himself, earning a light smack on the shoulder from Sonic.

"You just can't help yourself sometimes, can you?" the blue hedgehog said, unable to hide his own grin. He then turned his attention back to Tails. "All right, one more to go! You've got this!"

Tails gulped as he saw the windmill in question. The door at the bottom of it was sealed shut, and he couldn't fly around it or he would be forced to restart. So, he looked ahead and saw a small window which he had to fly through. The only problem was the fact that said window was high up on the windmill and was dangerously close to the biggest point of the blades.

"Well, that's just great," Tails said, electing to reach ground level again.

"Take your time, dude," said Sonic. "Just slow down, rest, and think this through. Like Shadow did."

"Right," Tails nodded, speaking under his breath. "Just take it slow, pick my chances, and don't get reckless."

He then took a sharp inhale of breath and floated upwards, not wanting to expend too much energy. He soon reached his destination, and focused his line of sight on the small window in the windmill.

He remained flying in place as the blades of the windmill spun around, and his mind went off on a tangent of its own, trying to judge the trajectory of the blades, the entry point, the timing... he didn't want to leave any room for error.

After a few more revolutions of the windmill blades, he finally took a gulp of breath and waited for the perfect time. As soon as he had it in sight, he knew that he had to make a break for it. So, he did. Just past one of the blades, he managed to find some breathing room between that and the next one, and so he dashed forward. With the wide gap that was left for him, he managed to get to the window without any problems.

"Where's the finish line?" asked Tails.

"You're at it right now!" Rotor called. "Just stay hovering, and I'll shut down the holograms!"

"Thanks for the warning!" the yellow fox smiled.

The purple walrus gave a thumbs up before shutting down the course for Tails, and the fox slowly descended down to the floor before going over to his friends, who rewarded him with pats on the back and words of praise.

"Good job there, dude!" Knuckles said.

"Yeah, that last trap looked pretty tough," Sonic added.

"All right, you're next, Knuckles," said Avery. "You ready?"

"Sure am," Knuckles grinned. "Fire it up. I can handle it."

"Yeah, you are pretty good at punching stuff without thinking," Sonic said.

"Thanks, dude," the red echidna replied, going over to the training course.

"This one will be much simpler since you have the easiest power to work around," said Rotor as he typed into the laptop. "Whilst Sonic did make a joke there, he does have a point. Let's hope that you can prove it."

"I wasn't joking," Sonic said. "He honestly really is good at punching without thinking."

"I'm thinking about who I'd like to punch right now," Knuckles grinned.

"Maybe later," Sonic smirked. "For now, focus on the task at hand."

The red echidna nodded and stepped up to the platform. "All right, let's do this."

"This will be simple enough for you," said Rotor, his fingers clacking on the laptop's keys. "All right... and there you go."

The first obstacle was a simple brick wall, about twice Knuckles' height. The echidna shrugged and stepped towards it. "Well, I guess I won't know what else there is until I knock this one down, right?"

He then reared his fist back and took a few moments before swinging forward, hitting the brick wall hard. The moment his fist made contact, he pulled it away, shaking it off and wincing slightly in pain.

"You okay, buddy?" Tails called.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would." He then turned back to the brick wall to see that it a few bricks missing from the middle of it, but when he looked through the small hole in the middle of them, he saw nothing. "Um..."

"Problem?" Rotor asked.

"You could say that," Knuckles said. "Where are the rest of the things that I need to punch?"

"For your test, we decided to not go too overboard," said Rotor. "You'll only have one thing after the brick wall, but we don't want you to overdo it."

"How come?"

"Well, strength enhancing implants can often take a lot out of a user, perhaps even more so than with your friends," said Avery.

"Knuckles is easily the fittest out of all of us," Sonic pointed out. "The dude doesn't have to worry about getting too tired."

The red echidna nodded. "Yeah. Come on, doc. Give me more stuff to break."

"All right, calm down, Limp Bizkit," Rotor chuckled. "First, I want to reset the wall. I want you to hit it harder this time."

"I think that I can manage that," Knuckles grinned.

In a second, the wall was fully repaired, and Knuckles took a deep breath. Much like he did last time, he reared his fist back, even winding it up a little bit. He then let out a sharp exhale and thrust his closed hand forward, this time punching through the wall and not stopping. He then pulled his fist back out through the hole he'd created, and was about to speak when all of the bricks crumbled down, some breaking in the process.

"How hard did you hit that wall?" Rotor asked as he went about setting up another obstacle for Knuckles.

"I'd say about maybe a quarter of my strength?" Knuckles said, shrugging. "I don't really know. You said to hit it harder, not to hit it as hard as I can. If I did that, those bricks wouldn't be broken; they'd be dust."

"What about the first time?" asked Avery.

"Maybe an tenth of my strength?" Knuckles replied. "Like I told you, I don't know how strong I really am. I can punch good, but that's it."

"Hmm... I think I might have something for you," Rotor grinned as his fingers clacked on the keyboard.

Soon, the wall before Knuckles disappeared, and the echidna walked forward to see a bunch of large black metal rings. But that was at the end of the course before the finish line, and before he could speak, something else appeared in front of Knuckles.

A large frame suddenly sprung into view, surrounding a large wall, also made out of metal. Knuckles walked up and tested it with a few knocks, getting some loud rungs of sound in reply.

"All right, it's the real deal," the red echidna said with a shrug. "What's it made of?"

"This is straight up titanium," said Rotor.

"Huh," Knuckles grinned. "You guys don't mess around." He then cracked his fingers. "All right, let's do this."

He stood back a bit, rearing his left foot behind him to keep himself balanced. He then reared his left fist back and thrust it forward as hard as he could, and as soon as he made contact with the metal door, an explosively loud bang sound was heard.

Knuckles looked from his shoulder down to his fist to see that he had dented the door, almost getting all the way through. He pulled his hand back and shook it off before turning to Rotor. "Fix it back up."

"You sure?" the purple walrus asked.

"Yeah. I want to do this with one shot."

Rotor shrugged. "All right. If you insist." He went about fixing the wall, repairing the dent that Knuckles made. "There you go. I'll keep repairing it until you get it right, if you want."

"Eh, if you feel the need to," Knuckles said, his attention focused again on the door.

He pulled his fist back and, much like last time, landed a heavy punch. It merely resulted in another dent. Before Rotor could fix it, Knuckles moved his right fist and punched the door, again denting it. He then repeated the process, switching his hands as he struck the door.

"So much for me fixing it," Rotor grinned.

"Actually, this could be a good thing," Avery said. "This could be a good test of his hand speed with the implant."

"Oh yeah... you're right," Rotor said. "So, don't fix the door?"

"Don't fix the door."

"Got it."

Back with Knuckles, he was continuing to hit the door, switching hand after hand. He was beginning to pant a bit as he kept going, but he soon felt a difference in his punches. Still panting, he managed a smile and kept swinging for the fences.

Soon, he felt the back of the door, feeling his fist beginning to smash through it. He didn't waste any time; he stopped, stood back again, reared his fist, and thrust it forward with a yell. The next thing he knew, his fist was through the door, having punched through the metal effortlessly after weakening it with the rapid punches from earlier.

"How thick was that door?" Sonic asked.

"4 inches," said Rotor. "I figured that it was a good balance for him."

"Good thinking," said Knuckles, looking ahead. "All right, one more thing. So, what's the deal with these rings?"

"All you need to do is lift them to the finish line, and you're done," Rotor said.

Knuckles nodded, breathing and wiping his hands together as he walked over to the rings. They were painted black, but since they were holograms, the paint wasn't going to rub off on him. The weight, however, was going to feel very real. He looked down at the six metal rings and decided to pick three up in each hand. He let out a large exhale of breath as he held them, staying in place before putting them back down.

"How much do those rings weigh?" Sonic asked Rotor.

"150 lbs each," said Rotor.

"Multiplied by six, that's 900 lbs..." Tails said.

"You hear that, Knuckles?" Sonic called to his friend.

"Not really!" Knuckles replied. "You guys are kind of far away and I can't hear you very well!"

"They come up to a total of 900 lbs!" Tails called out.

"900?" the red echidna mumbled. "Damn..."

"You've got this, dude!" Tails said.

Knuckles simply nodded before cracking his fists together and creaking his neck. He then rubbed his hands together again and knelt down to wrap both his hands around three metal rings each. With a deep breath, he stood up with them. Not wanting to waste any time, he carried them to the finish line, impressing the small crowd by lifting the rings up higher as he reached the end.

He dropped the rings and shook his arms off before raising them in victory. "I did it!"

"Not bad," said Sonic as Knuckles walked back over to them. "That last part was tough, though."

Rotor nodded. "It was. Also... I lied."

"Excuse me?" Knuckles asked.

"Those weights? Yeah, they weren't 900 lbs. They were 1800 in total." The purple walrus shrugged. "Exactly double."

"So, why make up a fake number?" Knuckles asked.

"A placebo effect," Rotor smiled. "If I made you think you could carry 900 lbs, then there's a good chance that that's all that you were thinking about. Since it was twice that amount, I'm glad that it paid off."

"Me too," the red echidna smiled. He then turned to his blue hedgehog friend. "You're next up, dude."

"He's last, actually," Shadow said.

Sonic nodded, turning to Rotor and Avery. "I'm ready."

Rotor smiled, typing into the keyboard once more as Sonic approached the obstacle course. He typed onto the laptop for the final time, coming up with three brand new obstacles for the hedgehog; a long jump, a small hurdle run, and finally, a simple 50 metre dash at the end.

"This course is a lot longer than all of ours," Tails pointed out.

"Well, Sonic's main basis is speed, so I gave him a course the befits what his implant should allow him to do," Rotor shrugged. "Just like I did with the rest of you."

"Makes sense to me," Knuckles said, turning to Sonic. "All right, the stage is yours, dude!"

Sonic flashed a thumbs up and reached the first obstacle. True to a long jump, it had the sandpit and everything, and Sonic smiled at the effort of it all. He stood back about a foot from the pit before crouching down, bending his knees. He then leaped forward, landing right at the end of the pit.

"Just as I thought," Rotor smiled. "Not only is it a speed increase, but his agility and jumping has been boosted as well."

"That's pretty cool," Tails smiled. "How long was that jump?"

"15 feet," said Rotor. "Not bad."

Sonic chuckled to himself before focusing on the next thing, those being the hurdles. There was five rows of three in a row, and he set his sights the middle one. He took a step back before letting out a small breath. He then rushed forward at a dead sprint, jumping over the first hurdle with ease. Two more steps, next hurdle. This repeated for the last three, and he managed to not only clear them, but didn't knock any over.

"All right! Nice going!" said Rotor.

"That's how it's done, Sonic!" Knuckles added on.

Avery smiled and turned to whisper to Rotor. "How long is that final dash?" he asked.

"I couldn't fit much on, so it's only 25 metres," Rotor answered. "Why?"

"How about you change the course up? Make it 100 metres," Avery said. "You know what to do."

Sonic was about to set himself down for the last obstacle, but then noticed the course changing under his feet; the lines of the dash suddenly extended to behind him, reaching all the way back to the beginning of the course.

Confused, he turned to Avery and Rotor. "What the hell is all of this?"

"We're changing your course up," said the commander. "For this, you'll have to get back to the start of the course. Questions?"

Sonic shook his head. "No." He then walked back to the start of the course, noticing that the long jump and hurdles had now disappeared. He soon made it back to the beginning, turning to face the end and setting himself on all fours.

Tails noticed Sonic readying up, and so he decided to call it out like they were at the Olympics. "On your marks..." Sonic propped himself to the tips of his fingers and toes, "get set..." Sonic looked forward at the finished line, "go!"

The blue hedgehog instantly stood and sprinted for the finish line, rushing as fast as he could. His feet hit the platform hard as he sprinted forward, and he soon approached the end, making it there a lot quicker than he thought he would. Still, he didn't complain, focusing on the finish.

In another second, he'd made it, breaking through the tape at the end and raising his arms as he made it. "Yes! I did it!"

The others watched in stunned silence before applauding for their friend. "That's the way to do it!" said Knuckles.

"Good one!" Tails added.

Sonic smiled and walked over to his friends, getting embraced in a huddle with them. "That... that was over a lot quicker than I thought that it would be."

"Yeah," Shadow said. "You were at the start at one second, then the next you were at the end."

"Come on, there's no need to exaggerate," Sonic smiled.

"Actually," Rotor said, "he's not exaggerating. It only took you two seconds to make it from one end to the other. Well, 2.37, but who's counting?"

"You're shitting me," Sonic said, raising an eyebrow.

"I most certainly am not," Rotor replied. "I had the timer set up on the laptop." He showed Sonic on the screen, along with a video of his run. "The numbers and the video evidence don't lie."

The blue hedgehog looked close, seeing that he was at the start one moment before suddenly turning into a blue blur and appearing at the end in a flash. His eyes widened as he chuckled. "I never thought that, of all that was going to happen today, that would be what shocked me the most."

Avery smiled. "Well, you all did a great job. But we will have to analyse it back at the base."

"Yes, we will," Rotor said. "We meaning just me."

"I have a police department to run," Avery smiled. "You stick to the smart stuff, I stick to the leadership."

"Good point," Rotor chuckled.

Sonic smiled. "All this training has made me kinda thirsty. Let's get some drinks from the-"

He was cut off as an alarm sounded off over the gym's intercom, with a robotic voice speaking. "Will Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow please report to the kitchen?"

Knuckles looked at Rotor. "Prerecorded messages?"

"Just in case you're not close to a phone," said the purple walrus with a shrug.

"Let's get to it," Sonic said. They left the gym, soon making it to the kitchen. As the main four sat down, Rotor and Avery quickly returned the laptop they got from the communications room, coming back in time as Sonic pressed the answer button.

"You've reached the freelancers," Sonic said. "Who is it?"

"I'm a cop for Aqua Lake City!" said a panicked male voice. "We need backup! Stat!"

"What's your name?" Avery asked.

"Agent Brookes!"

"Well, Brookes, don't worry. My name is Avery. I'm the head of Green Hill Police Department. Now, calmly tell me what the situation is."

"There's been a huge explosion in the centre of the city!" Brookes replied, before another loud boom sounded off behind him. "Make that two! We need extra hands to rescue people!"

"We're on our way," Sonic said. "Just hang tight, all right?"

"Get here as soon as you can!" Brookes replied, hanging up.

Sonic let out a breath, turning to the others. "All right, let's go gear up."

"You got it," Knuckles replied.

The others went back down to the gym, but Sonic stopped and turned to Avery and Rotor. "Thank you for stopping by."

"No problem," Avery said. "We've got to get back to G.H.P.D. anyway. Good luck in your mission."

"Thank you," the blue hedgehog smiled.

"Oh, and we'll prep a boat for you," Rotor added on. "You don't really have one in your garage, so we'll let you use one of ours."

"That's a huge help," Sonic nodded. He then turned back around to head to the gym, waving goodbye. "See you later!"

Rotor and Avery waved back, turning to leave. As they exited, Rotor called in a G.H.P.D. boat for Sonic and the others, as well as someone to drive it just in case. He then turned to Avery. "It's all sorted, sir."

"All right. Let's get back to base."

* * *

 **And that'll just about do it. I'm so, so sorry that it took me so damn long to put this out. But I did it! Hopefully I'll have more consistency with this, but as always, I don't guarantee anything. I'll see you guys on the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	22. Across The Pond

Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles were all geared up as they drove in the red echidna's car. They took it down to the main pier of Green Hill. Not wasting time, they hopped into the silver and neon blue emergency craft-styled boat marked with no roof and the G.H.P.D. logo on the side.

"Can anybody here drive a boat?" asked Sonic as they stood at the pier.

"I'm a planes and helicopters guy," said Tails. "This ain't my forte."

"And I stick to ground level for a reason," Knuckles shrugged.

Shadow hopped on. "Come on. How hard can it be?" He glanced around at the controls. "It looks like a car, but standing up."

"Want to take a swing at it?" Sonic asked.

Shadow ignored him, looking to see the ignition on the boat. It had a pair of keys, courtesy of Green Hill Police Department. The black and red hedgehog shrugged and turned it, the engine of the boat roaring to life.

"Hop on!" Shadow called.

The other three did so, hanging on to the rails at the side as Shadow pushed his foot down, speeding through the water. Sonic began wobbling a bit from moving back and forth, but soon managed to hold himself up.

"You okay?" Tails asked him.

"Huh?" Sonic said. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just not too used to being on a boat."

"Same here," Knuckles said, also sliding around a bit. "Do we have a GPS on this thing?"

"Indeed we do," Shadow said. "GPS, set sail for Aqua Lake City."

"Set sail?" Tails said. "Really?"

"Want me to throw you overboard?" Shadow asked. "Because I will do it."

"Just get us to where we need to go, Aqua-Hog," Sonic said.

Shadow chuckled. "Aye aye, first mate Sonic."

"Shame we can't put on some tunes," Knuckles said. "This is the kind of situation where we need music to get ourselves pumped up."

"Yes, because that's the most important part of this whole thing," Tails smiled sarcastically.

"Just saying," Knuckles shrugged. "Maybe we'll get our own boats one day. And maybe I'll take one of those boats for my own and bring all my albums with me so that none of you guys can listen to them."

"That's a very long-winded threat," Tails said. "You been working on that one?"

"Only a little bit," the red echidna smiled. "Still, it's been a weird-ass week. I never thought that I'd wind up on a boat at any point during our time as freelancers. Hell, I never even thought that we'd become freelancers."

"Well, if the pay is good, then why not?" Sonic said.

"I don't think we've been paid once, actually," Tails said. "Maybe we could talk to Avery when this is over?"

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "Good plan. I mean, if I had to guess, I'd say that we have our own bank account separate from the usual law forces, but it's just a guess."

"You know how money works?" Tails asked.

"If I weren't a now ex-policeman, I probably could have become a banker," Knuckles shrugged.

"Well, we do need someone to handle our finances at the new base," Sonic smirked.

Knuckles smiled. "Nice try. I'll stick to being the muscle of the group, thanks."

"I guess that leaves me with the real work, as always," Tails chided.

The others laughed at that as they soon approached the dock of Aqua Lake City. Despite the fact that they could see the smoke of the earlier commotion, they took in how the city looked; the crystal clear water surrounding it was a stark contrast to the deeper blue of the rest of the sea, and the buildings themselves were often painted to reflect that theme. The city itself was known for its more environmentally conscious take on things, hence why it keeps its look as clean as it possibly can.

"All right, here we are," Shadow said as they hopped off the boat and onto the pier.

"Let's make a beeline for those buildings," Sonic said as he kept walking.

The others agreed before they all soon came across a pair of police officers, both human. They wore a teal blue uniform shirt with dark blue slacks and black shoes, and the initials A.L.P.D. read underneath the logo on the left breast of the shirt. The logo itself was a small, clear blue waterfall being faced from the front, and some of it splashed over the initials.

"Are you the freelancers?" asked one of them with a Hispanic accent. He had black hair and brown eyes.

"Yeah," Sonic replied. "We got here as quick as we could."

"Nice place, by the way," Knuckles said, looking around and whistling.

"Well, it doesn't feel like it," said the other officer, with black hair and dark blue eyes. "We have reason to suspect that it's a terrorist attack."

"Which one of you two is Brookes?" Tails asked.

"Neither," replied the first cop. "I'm agent Mendez, and this is agent Wallace."

"So, what's the full story?" asked Shadow.

"We'll tell you on the way there," said Wallace. "We can't waste time."

The others nodded and followed the two officers before arriving at their car, which was teal blue and dark blue to match the uniform colours. It had the A.L.P.D. logo over both of its front doors, and Knuckles took time to admire it before getting into the car with the others.

They quickly took off driving and Wallace spoke into the car's mic. "This is Wallace to Brookes. Are you there?"

"I'm still here!" Brookes said with a panicked tone.

"Just try to stay calm. The freelancers are here, and they're going to help us out, okay?"

"Are the fire department there yet?" asked Mendez.

"They're on their way!" Brookes said. "But we still need help!"

"We're on it," said Wallace. "Just stay put and try to remain calm. Help whoever you can. We'll be there soon. Over and out."

"He seems pretty worried," said Sonic.

"He's known to be quite skittish," said Mendez. "But with two random bombings in a row, you'd probably be skittish too."

"Not wrong there," Tails agreed.

"Did any of you guys do any bomb training?" asked Mendez.

"Fluffy boy did," said Sonic. "He passed through the bomb tests with flying colours."

Tails shrugged. "I grew up into that lifestyle. My parents are mechanics themselves, more so my dad, and they taught me everything that I know."

"Looks like we got a wiz kid," Wallace smiled. "I passed those tests too."

"Did you disable the bombs quick enough to save the civilians as well?" Sonic asked.

"Um... how much time are we talking?"

"About a minute and a half left," Tails shrugged. "So many wires in those bombs. And they're fake and full of paint."

"Yeah," Knuckles agreed. "That'd be a bitch to wash out of your twins."

"I got gum stick in them once," Tails winced in remembrance. "Didn't turn out so well."

"Not that this isn't riveting conversation," said Mendez, "but we're almost there. Get ready."

"Right," Sonic nodded. "Will we need weapons?"

"You didn't bring anything?" asked Wallace.

"We've got pistols and grenades," said Tails. "Anything else?"

"We've got some shotguns in the trunk," said Wallace. "Take them just in case."

"It seems to mostly be a rescue operation," Shadow said. "You guys have a fire department, right?"

"Of course we do," said Mendez. "They were called first by Brookes before he contacted you guys."

Shadow was about to reply, but he spotted something from the corner of his eye. He looked out of his window to see a firetruck making its way to them. "Looks like they got here just in time."

As he said that, he and the others saw a bunch of people running across the road, with one of them stopping in front of the car and slapping on the hood in a panicked manner. In response, Mendez poked his head out of the window.

"What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" he asked.

"Th-There's going to be another attack!" she screamed.

Mendez nodded. "Get home safely. We'll take care of it."

The woman shook her head. "You won't have time!"

"What do you-"

Before he could speak, another loud boom sounded off, and it was quite close to them. The sound of the explosion caused the panicked woman to run away as fast as she could, and Mendez stepped on the gas, speeding around the corner to try and find the source of the commotion.

"Oh, you have got to be shitting me..." Knuckles said, dejectedly as he saw the source.

The others looked with him, seeing a freshly burning building with some people escaping as others began burning inside it. Without needing to see any more, Sonic and the others quickly rushed out of the car and ran over to the people, helping along those that were lucky enough to be alive and trying their best with the burning victims.

"HELP!" one of them screamed.

Sonic rushed up to him. "Stop, drop, and roll!"

"He's burning to death, and that's your advice?!" Wallace asked.

"You got any better ideas?" Sonic replied.

The man burning followed Sonic's advice, and soon he'd put the fire out on his own before standing up and rushing off in the direction that the other civilians had gone. The blue hedgehog brushed his quills back with both hands before hearing something through all the commotion.

"H-help..." a weak voice said.

Sonic was curious and went to the source of it. He found himself at an alleyway between the burning building and the one next to it, and saw a pile of rubble just barely moving as the voice cried meekly for help again.

Sonic ran over and tried to lift one of the heavy pieces of fallen brick, but he found himself straining too much. He quickly turned around and called. "Knuckles!"

"I'm on my way!" the red echidna replied, being in the midst of helping a child find their parents before turning to the source of Sonic's call. He soon joined his friend in the alleyway. "What's up?"

Sonic gestured to the pile of rubble beneath him. "I can't lift these. I need your help. There's someone under there, and they may not have much time."

Knuckles nodded, not needing to hear any more. He placed his hands on one of the large grey bricks and lifted, moving it to the side after some straining. The next one took less effort to pull off, and soon he'd found a good groove for moving the rubble.

Soon, he spotted a hand reaching out. The removal of more rocks and bricks revealed an arm, then eventually the head of a male with dark hair and grey eyes, but a face partially covered up in ashes. Sonic quickly grabbed the man's arm as Knuckles lifted a couple of bricks on the man's back. Sonic pulled him out with ease, breathing a sigh of relief.

"We've got you," said Sonic.

"W-Wait..." said the man. "Are y-you... the freelancers?"

It was then that Knuckles noticed the man's clothing; an A.L.P.D. uniform. "Brookes?" he asked. "What the hell were you doing under this last building when it blew up?"

"I... I didn't know..." said Brookes, choking a bit. "I... I thought th-that I was safe w-where I was..."

"Did you see the guy that did it?" Sonic asked as they brought Brookes out of the alleyway.

He shook his head. "N-No... they were inside the buildings when they blew them up..."

"Suicide bombings?" Knuckles said. "Fuck..."

"Did they have other people with them?" Sonic asked.

Brookes nodded. "A few... but they managed to find some safe areas during the explosions... I don't think that any of them were even in the buildings when it all went off..."

Sonic nodded, then his ears twitched as he heard a wailing siren. "Oh, thank god."

Knuckles couldn't hide his own smile of relief as he looked to see the firetruck finally arriving. It was the traditional red, but had the Aqua Lake logo on the side, with the initials of A.L.F.D. instead of A.L.P.D..

"Aqua Lake's bravest are finally here!" said Sonic, walking up to them as the truck stopped.

Tails, Shadow, Wallace, and Mendez soon caught up, with the yellow fox speaking first. "What'd I miss?"

"We found Brookes," Knuckles said, holding up the man who called them to Aqua Lake in the first place.

"Did you get everyone away from the perimeter safely?" Sonic asked.

"We got as many as we could," said Shadow. "There might be others inside the buildings."

"We'll get to that when the firemen are all done," said Sonic, turning to one of the firemen. "We got word that some more bad guys might be inside still, so don't feel bad about getting any of them wet."

"You got it," the fireman said with a smirk, untangling the hose that he'd pulled from the side of the truck. "All right, turn it on!"

"Do we have any extras for the other buildings?" asked another fireman.

"The hoses should be long enough to go past the alleyways!" said the first one. "Take them as far as you can, and hose down whatever you find!"

"Yes, sir!" The other fireman repeated those orders to others on the truck, and they followed suit going about grabbing spare hoses and helping to wash down the other buildings that were attacked.

"What can we do?" asked Sonic, getting a better profile of the fireman. He appeared to have greying black hair and a beard with the same colours, and dark green eyes.

"You guys can wait," said the fireman. "I'm Daugherty, by the way. I'm the head of Aqua Lake's fire department."

"Do you know who we are?" Knuckles asked.

"Um..." Daugherty shrugged his shoulders after giving them a once over. "I know that that's not Aqua Lake uniform."

"They're freelancers from Green Hill," said Wallace.

"Ah. We wouldn't know," said Daugherty. "We don't run into the police side all that often."

"We really only work together when we bump into each other," said Mendez.

"You guys are the jocks, and we're the true heroes," said Daugherty.

"I guess that makes the nurses and doctors a bunch of nerds," said Sonic. "Hot nerds. Hot nurse nerds."

"Well, now we know what Amy's Halloween costume is going to be this year," Knuckles teased.

"Just for Halloween?" Sonic asked. "Nah. That's going to be a special occasion outfit."

"You guys just started going out," Shadow said. "It's a bit too early for that."

"Yeah, you're probably right," said the blue hedgehog.

"When you guys are done talking about your fantasies in public with people that need to be saved," Daugherty spoke, "you want to maybe get your asses in there and see who you can help?"

"Sorry about that," said Sonic. "Let's all split up, actually. Three groups of two, one building each."

"Who's with who?" Wallace asked.

Mendez looked a bit spaced out before shaking his head and blinking his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm still kinda stuck on the nurse thing," he admitted. "What's happening?"

The blue hedgehog looked at Mendez drily. "You're with Knuckles."

"Sweet," he said. "I get the big guy."

"Strength isn't everything," Shadow reminded.

"True," Sonic spoke. "That's why you're going with me."

"That leaves me and fluffy," Wallace said, looking at Tails.

The yellow fox shrugged. "I'd prefer to be called fluffy than twins."

Sonic smiled. "All right, here's the plan-"

"Whoa, wait a minute," said Mendez. "Since when are you running this operation?"

"Sorry," Sonic replied. "What's your plan?"

"Me and Tails will take this building," said Wallace. "Sonic, you and Shadow take the second one. Mendez and Knuckles get the last one."

"And save anyone that you find," added Mendez. "Or shoot them, depending."

Sonic smiled. "All right, let's grab those shotguns that you were talking about."

Mendez chuckled, and soon they did just that, going back to the Aqua Lake vehicle to grab the weapons in question. However, there were only two shotguns, which Mendez reached in for and handed to Tails and Wallace.

"Why us two?" asked Wallace.

"Because," said Mendez, "Knuckles' strength is going to help us out a lot, and Sonic's strength will help him and Shadow."

"I don't have super strength," said Sonic. "I lifted the small rocks. Knuckles lifted the big ones."

"What can you do then?" asked Wallace.

"I've got super speed," the blue hedgehog said. "And Shadow can teleport, so he might be able to get into hard to reach spaces."

Wallace nodded, turning to Tails. "And what about you?"

The yellow fox spun his tails around and hovered in midair for a few seconds. "That answer your question?"

"Well, that settles that," Sonic smiled as Tails landed back down. "Let's get moving. We're wasting time."

The others agreed, with Tails and Wallace slinging their shotguns onto their backs as the whole group moved to the buildings, soon splitting apart into their planned bundles for their respective buildings.

Sonic gave a quick thumbs-up to the main fireman hosing down the second building. He looked it up and down, seeing a store with an extra layer on top, complete with an upstairs area of its own.

"Kinda reminds me of Jade Mountain," Shadow said.

"I don't even want to think about that place not existing," Sonic shuddered, shaking his head. "Come on. Let's get inside and see what's up."

Shadow nodded, and the two walked into the building. It appeared as a small convenience store, with several fridges, shelves, and a counter with two parts to it. Of course, that's what it would have looked like had it not been blown up earlier that day.

Sonic looked past the counter and saw some stairs, but he heard some whimpering. Shadow heard it too, and both turned to see a small girl with red hair tucked in the corner of the counter, curled up into a ball and crying her eyes out. She was wearing a light pink hoodie, dark blue jeans, and turquoise sandals, but much like her hair, they'd been tarnished by the ashes.

"Hey," Sonic said, going over to the girl.

She looked up at him past her arms, backing away as much as she could. "G-Get away from me!"

"We're not here to hurt you," said the blue hedgehog. "I'm a freelance law agent." He then hooked a thumb to point behind him. "This is Shadow, my partner."

"Y-You look j-just like the g-guys from earlier!" she said.

"What guys?" Shadow asked.

"Get out of here!" the girl yelled.

"Whoa, calm down," said Sonic. "We're only trying to-"

It was then that a shotgun sounded off, and Sonic and Shadow immediately ducked under the counter. They then heard laughter, followed by a pair of footsteps that slowly approached the kitchen counter.

"So, the cops finally showed up!" the voice said gruffly.

"And just who might you be?" asked Sonic.

"I just might be the guy who kills you," the voice replied.

"Are you associated with the people who blew up this building?" Shadow asked.

"What kind of fucking nerdy shit is that?" the voice laughed as he reached the counter, leaning over to see Sonic and Shadow. Both looked up to see a Mobian hedgehog with dark green fur and purple eyes, wearing all black and not bothering with a mask. His face was grizzled, with his muzzle covered in matted fur, possibly from the hosing of the building. He simply pointed his shotgun at the two hedgehogs. "That little girl tried to warn you to get away." He cocked his gun. "You should have listened..."

Before he could fire, another gunshot sounded, this time from the girl having picked up a gun and fired it. It didn't hit the criminal directly, but it hit his gun, causing him to growl and look over at the girl.

"I told you to be a good girl," he grunted. "But you couldn't keep your fucking hands to yourself!"

He went to point his gun at her, but Sonic jumped up and grabbed the bad guy's gun, pulling it back and then pushing it forward hard enough to make the criminal lose his grip on it. Before the bad guy could follow in, he was tripped from behind by Shadow, hitting his head on the floor as he fell.

"Ooh..." he groaned in pain. His hand moved to his pocket, but Shadow stepped on it quickly.

"Whatever you reach for next, please don't make it another weapon," the black and red hedgehog said. "We may just have to use it against you." The criminal replied by spitting at Shadow, but it fell just short and landed on his shoe. Shadow shrugged. "I mean, not a weapon, but-"

He cut himself off by moving quickly to deliver a harsh kick to the Mobian's side, causing a load moan of pain. Before the criminal could move again, he heard a shotgun cock, looking up to see the muzzle of it pointed at his head, with Sonic holding it.

"Is that any way to treat the two people who hold your life in their hands?" Sonic asked. "Now, we're going to ask you some questions. If you don't answer them, then my buddy Shadow is going to kick you in a lot of your body parts."

"I'm not telling you coppers a damn thing..."

Shadow smirked and kicked him in the side again. "We're not cops," he pointed out. "We're freelance."

"Which means," Sonic added, "that we don't abide by any specific authority except for our own. And right now, my own authority is telling me to shoot you right in the head and paint the floor with your brains, but I'm feeling generous today."

"Do people like you even have the stones to get rid of people like me?" the Mobian criminal asked.

"We've been putting away people like you for a long time," said Sonic, pressing the muzzle against the criminal's head. "And I'm about to do it again if you don't speak."

"All right, if it'll shut you up," said the criminal. "What do you want?"

"I only want to know if you have other people here," Sonic said.

"What, you don't think that I came here alone?"

"Well, we got reports of suicide bombers being those who blew things up," Shadow said. "Normally, a suicide bomber dies too when they, you know, bomb something. And you still look like you have all of your body parts attached."

"Which could be changed very quickly," said Sonic.

The criminal started laughing, a gleam in his eye. "I thought that cops were supposed to have eyes in the back of their heads..."

"What are you-"

Sonic was cut off by a squeal as the girl from earlier was picked up by another criminal, also a Mobian. He held a gun against the girl's head as he backed away upstairs, with another man behind him.

"If you follow me, I'm going to blow this little bitch's head off!" he warned.

The criminal that Sonic and Shadow had taken out kicked Shadow's legs from underneath him, causing him to fall forwards. Sonic turned to his friend, but was kicked down himself as the bad guy picked up the shotgun that was taken from him and aimed it at Sonic. He went to pull the trigger, but Shadow shoulder charged him at the last second, crashing him against the wall.

"I'll take care of this guy!" Shadow said to Sonic. "You go upstairs and rescue that little girl!"

The blue hedgehog nodded, hopping over the counter and moving upstairs as quickly as he could. Sonic decided to keep his pace moderated; he wanted to rescue the girl, but he didn't want to move to quick in case he gave himself away and the bad guys lived up to their promise.

'I've got to keep a cool head about this,' Sonic thought to himself as he moved further up.

He peeked around the corner, his hand resting on his own shotgun as he turned past the corner, aiming the gun. He came face to face with nothing, but kept the gun up as he looked around. He took a few more steps and looked at the floor beneath him, seeing a bunch of shattered glass and suddenly noticing that the top half of the building was more damaged than the bottom, with more chunks of it missing and even the roof completely destroyed, letting the midday sun beam through the top of the building.

'This must have been where the bomb went off,' he thought. 'Makes sense; start from the top, and fire will spread down below.'

Sonic kept looking around, being careful not to tread to sharply on the glass before a flapping noise startled him. He kept calm, looking up to see a pigeon land on the what very little was left of the roof.

Sonic jerked his gun at the bird before moving it sideways, mouthing, "get out of here". But the bird stayed where it was. So, Sonic grunted and took another step forward, but was suddenly flung forward onto his face as he felt someone's weight on his back.

"We warned you not to come up here," the bad guy said. He punctuated this with a punch to Sonic's side, earning a groan of pain from the hedgehog.

Sonic quickly spun around, turning onto his side and scooting his hips before winding up on his back. The bad guy above him just grinned evilly and began raining down punches onto the freelancer, mixing up shots to the body and the head as Sonic couldn't cover both at once. More and more punches began to rain down, with one of them causing Sonic's head to bounce off the ground, dazing him.

The bad guy saw this and pulled out a knife from his pocket, holding the blade against Sonic's neck. "Let this be a lesson to do what you're told."

Just as he was about to cut Sonic's neck wide open, he was struck from behind, instantly going out cold and beginning to fall forward, but Sonic's saviour managed to grab the bad guy and pull him off of Sonic, allowing him to get up.

"Thanks, man," Sonic said to Shadow. "How'd you knock him out so easily?"

"Shot to the back of the neck," said the black and red hedgehog. "Knuckles might be the best fighter of our group, but I know about accuracy. I studied a lot about weak points and pressure points."

"Nice," Sonic smiled.

"If I wanted to, I could incapacitate you within about three seconds," Shadow followed on.

"Less nice," Sonic said. "Come on, let's go rescue the girl."

"Don't you fucking move!" said the bad guy from wherever he was.

"Where are you?" Sonic asked.

The criminal made himself known as he appeared from behind a wall where a door once was, said door having been blown to pieces, presumably by the explosion from earlier. He still had the girl in his grasp as he walked out.

"You know, you two are really bad at listening," he said.

"What was that?" Sonic asked. "I couldn't hear you over how much of an ass-hole you are."

"Cute."

"Well, thanks, but I'm spoken for."

The bad guy growled. "I did tell you that if you came after me, I'd kill this girl."

"Right," Sonic nodded. "And you haven't done this yet because..."

"Because I wanted you to see it with your own eyes."

"Really?" Sonic chuckled. "That's the best cliche that you've got?"

"Funny." The bad guy then aimed the gun at Shadow, shooting him right in the chest, causing him to fall back.

"Shadow!" Sonic cried, kneeling down by his friend, whose eyes were already closed from death. Sonic stood up, slowly turning back to the bad guy. "I'll get you for this, you son of a bitch!"

"Then how about you take a shot at me?" he asked. "Come on, pig! Break that flimsy little moral code of yours and put a bullet in my brain!"

"I wasn't exactly thinking the brain," said Sonic. "I was thinking a bit lower..."

"Straight for my crown jewels, huh?" The criminal laughed. "Sadistic. I like it."

"And then a bit to the left..."

"Thigh?" the bad guy asked. "I mean, it's usually thick enough, bleeds a lot when shot, slow painful death. Not as morbidly hilarious as getting shot in the dick, but-"

"And then a little bit more to the right..."

"Okay, I'm confused," said the bad guy. "Are you going to fucking shoot me already?"

"Oh, I'm not the one that's going to shoot you," Sonic said.

"Then wha-"

He was cut off as a gunshot sounded off and a bullet suddenly found itself lodged in the bad guy's right shoulder, causing him to drop his gun and scream in pain. He moved his other hand to clutch at his new wound, letting the girl run free, who hid behind Sonic for safety.

"Nicely done," Sonic said, turning to Shadow, who was still laid down but had his head and arms up, holding his pistol.

"Thanks," the black and red hedgehog replied as Sonic helped him back up to his feet.

"Still not used to getting shot even with a vest?"

"You don't ever get used to getting shot," Shadow smiled. "Even Knuckles had trouble back at the academy."

The blue hedgehog nodded in agreement before walking over to the person that his friend just shot down. He stood him up and looked into his eyes. "So, I have to ask..."

"Oh, not this shit again..." the criminal said.

"You'd better listen to me," Sonic warned. "The longer we keep yapping, the more that shoulder will bleed out."

"I could just shoot him in the head and put him out of his misery," Shadow shrugged.

"I like your thinking, but no," Sonic said. "But if our next job has to do with kidnapping terrorist dick-bags, you get as many head-shots as you want."

"I'll hold you to that."

Sonic turned back to the bad guy. "So, I'm going to ask you this first; how did you survive the explosions in the first place?"

"I ain't telling you shit..." the criminal responded.

Sonic rolled his emerald eyes and kneed him in the groin, causing him to wince in pain and fall down. Sonic then picked him back up again and slammed him against a wall, growling.

"I will not ask this a third time," Sonic warned. "How did you survive the explosions?" As he began speaking, he heard Shadow cock his gun, training it on the bad guy.

"We... we were all told to wait for our cues far away from where the attacks were happening..."

"How'd you get here so fast?"

"We ran," the bad guy shrugged. "After the explosions happened and the buildings were done being destroyed, we made our move to get here."

"That's two good enough answers," the blue hedgehog said. "Now, my last question: Did Nack put you up to this?"

"Who?"

Sonic elbowed the arsonist in the side of the head, keeping him steady with his other hand. "Did Nack put you up to this?"

"I don't know who the fuck you're talking about..."

"So, who are you working for?" Shadow asked.

"Myself..." the bad guy spat. "I don't have any bosses or employers..."

"So, let me get this straight," Sonic began. "You and a bunch of other pricks decided to just go around blowing up buildings and killing people because you felt like it?"

"Can't a criminal be a criminal without needing a motive?"

Sonic shook his head. "I don't believe that, but you hardly seem like the type who works on their own. This has to have all been planned."

"I just do what I'm told," the bad guys said, closing his mouth with a crunching sound.

"What was-"

Shadow was cut off as the bad guy's mouth opened and he started to gurgle, white foam accumulating at the sides of his mouth as he fell to the ground, twitching with his last few breaths before dying.

"Cyanide..." Sonic said.

"An old classic of bad guys that don't want to tell too much," Sonic said. "Did the guy downstairs kill himself with it too?"

Shadow shook his head. "I knocked him out before he could do it."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "All right. Let's grab the two that are still alive and get out of here." He then felt a tug on his leg, turning to see the girl from earlier. He leaned down to her. "Yes?"

"You swear a lot," she said, somewhat innocently.

"Sorry about that," Sonic said. "Promise to forget what you heard, okay?"

"Only if you let me hug you," she blushed. "For saving me."

"He's got a girlfriend," Shadow said, smirking.

"Doesn't mean I can't hug people," Sonic replied, turning back to the girl. "Sure."

The two shared a hug, with the little girl giggling and softly petting Sonic's quills, causing him to chuckle a bit too. After a moment or so, they stopped the hug, with the little girl looking around at the bodies of the bad guys.

"Will they be okay?" she asked.

"I kinda hope not," said Sonic. "I mean, they did hold you hostage and then try to kill you."

"True," she replied with a giggle. "Thank you for saving me."

"Just doing our job," Shadow said.

"But you don't look like normal cops in the city," she pointed out.

"We're free agents," Sonic said. "We can save people wherever we want without having to worry about what district we're in."

"Why would you have to worry?"

"Because police officers can only work in their respective districts," said Sonic. "Me and Shadow and two other friends actually used to be cops, but we got fired for breaking that rule, even though we never did anything bad."

"Did you catch the bad guy?"

"No," Shadow shook his head. "We missed him, but we came close."

"We did save some people, though," Sonic smiled.

"And you still lost your job?" the girl asked.

"Yeah."

"Well... that's a really stupid rule."

The blue hedgehog laughed. "We could have used you when we went to court. I'm sure that the judge wouldn't have been able to resist a cute little girl like you pointing that out to him."

"Yeah, but then you wouldn't have saved me," she smiled.

"You're a smart kid," Sonic smiled. "Come on, let's get out of here."

The girl nodded, going downstairs ahead of the two hedgehogs. Sonic slapped some cuffs on the guy that Shadow had knocked out earlier, lifting him up and dragging him downstairs on his feet, waiting for Shadow to cuff the other remaining criminal before both went outside.

"There you go," Sonic said to the Aqua Lake police waiting for them.

"Thanks for the help," the officer replied.

Sonic nodded in thanks as Shadow handed over the other bad guy before speaking. "We may need a coroner. There's a third man in there who took a cyanide pill."

"I'll call it," the policeman nodded.

The two hedgehogs thanked the officer again and went over to see Tails, Knuckles, Mendez, and Wallace, with the yellow fox speaking first. "How'd it go?"

"Two out of three," Sonic said. "Third guy committed suicide."

"Cyanide?" Wallace asked.

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "How'd you know that?"

"It's a typical technique," Wallace shrugged. "I've seen it before."

"Did it happen to anyone else?" Sonic asked.

"No," Tails said. "Two guys for us, we got them both."

"Two for us too," Knuckles added. "No suicides."

"Did you find anyone in your buildings?" Mendez asked.

"We found a little redhead girl," said Shadow. "We didn't get the chance to look around elsewhere."

"We found a couple of people too," said Tails. "They're safe, but one of them got pierced through the leg by a loose rod. Hopefully, they'll be okay."

"Sort of the same," said Mendez. "We found some kids that were nearby, along with their pet German shepherd."

"Aw, that's nice," Tails smiled.

"Where's Brookes?" Knuckles asked, looking around.

On cue, the man in question's head popped up from the side of one of Aqua Lake's police cars. "Was just checking out the bad guys."

"They're completely fine," said Sonic. "Just slightly unconscious."

Brookes chuckled. "I noticed one of them didn't come back out."

Before Sonic could answer that, he turned as a black van with the Aqua Lake crystal blue stripe going around its side pulled up, with the word Coroner on both sides next to the Aqua Lake logo.

"Well, here comes the guy that's supposed to pick that last guy up," Shadow said. Upon seeing Brookes' confused look, he elaborated. "Cyanide. Killed himself before we could get much out of him."

"Ah," Brookes said. "Sorry to hear that."

"I mean, he was a criminal, but..." Sonic trailed off.

"Dude, we've all killed before," Knuckles pointed out. "Not without reason, obviously."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sonic agreed.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Mendez smiled. "Well, it was a pleasure to have you helping us, but we've got it covered from here."

"Thanks for letting us help," the blue hedgehog said, shaking Mendez's hand as Tails did the same with Wallace.

"Before you go," Brookes said, "could I take a picture of you guys? As thanks for saving me, I mean."

"I don't see why not," Tails said.

"Do you want all of us in it?" Wallace asked.

"No, just the freelancers," said Brookes.

"Better get my good side," Knuckles smiled.

"You don't have a good side," Sonic muttered with a smirk.

The four freelance heroes stood alongside each other, and Brookes pulled out his phone and took a quick photo as they all smiled and posed, with the exception of Shadow, who simply gave a one-sided smile. As soon as it was done, they broke off from each other.

Before anyone could do anything, Sonic turned to feel a tug at his pants, smiling as he saw the little girl again from earlier. "Hello, you."

"Just wanted to say thanks again," she smiled. "I'm Carly."

"Well, Carly, it was a pleasure to meet you today," the blue hedgehog smiled as he knelt down. "You were very brave. I just wanted you to know that."

"Thank you," she smiled again, hugging Sonic, who hugged back.

"Awww..." the others said, part mockingly and part sincerely.

Soon, the hug broke, and Sonic smiled before speaking. "All right, we'd better get back to our base." He turned to the other cops. "Once again, thanks for having us."

"Thanks for helping," said Mendez. "Take care!"

"We will!" said Tails as he and the others began walking off. "Bye!"

The freelancers waved goodbye to the Aqua Lake cops and went back to the pier, finding their boat and starting it up, with Shadow driving again and setting a course back for Green Hill City.

As they sped back there, Sonic looked thoughtful, which Tails noticed. "Everything okay there, dude?"

"I'm just a bit bummed out that we've had another mission with nobody knowing jack shit about Nack," Sonic admitted.

"Something will turn up, dude," Tails said. "We've just got to focus on helping people for now." He then put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "But we will find Nack. And we'll all do it together."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "Yeah... I know..."

Back at Aqua Lake, the cops were checking over the buildings one more time to look for any remaining survivors, but found either corpses or nothing else. Wallace and Mendez got back into their car, engaging in conversation.

"Renovating these buildings is going to be a pain in the ass," Wallace said.

"It's a good thing that we're not builders then, isn't it?" Mendez replied.

"Still doesn't mean we can't help," Wallace pointed out, looking to see Brookes. He pokes his head out of the window to speak to him. "Hey, Brookes! Want a lift?"

"I'll catch up with you guys in a minute!" Brookes said. "You go on ahead!"

"You sure?" Mendez asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine!"

Wallace and Mendez nodded and waved as they drove off. Brookes waved back and gave a smile as he did before they turned the corner. When they were out of view, he quickly ducked into a nearby alleyway and pulled out his phone, typing in a number.

"Come on... pick up..." he said impatiently.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end spoke.

"Is this Martin?" Brookes asked.

"Yes it is," Martin replied. "Brookes. Good to hear from you."

"It was a close call there, but I'm fine."

"So, how'd it go?" Martin asked. "Did the trap work?"

"It would have worked better if we could have actually killed some cops, but besides that, yes."

"And the dummy?"

"Lived up to his task," Brookes said. "Didn't tell them a thing, then took his pill."

"He was an obedient son of a bitch, I'll give him that," Martin said. "Anyway, if the trap worked, then you need to prove it."

"No problem," Martin said. "I got a picture of them. I'm sending it to you now." He then pulled the phone away and found the picture he'd took of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow, and sent it to Martin's mobile phone and adding a text saying the names of the four.

After a few moments, Martin replied happily. "Very good work, Brookes. This'll go over real well with the boss."

"Let's hope so," Brookes replied.

"It will," Martin nodded on his end. "Look, I've got to go. Got a meeting coming up."

"With the boss?"

"That's right," Martin nodded again. "The boss."

"Just who is this boss?" Brookes asked.

"That is for me to know and you to never find out if you keep asking about him," Martin said before hanging up.

"Hello?" Brookes asked after the hangup. "Fucking ass-hole..." He put his phone back in his pocket. He then walked out of the alleyway and looked over at the burnt down buildings. "Well, my work here is done. Let's just hope that it was enough."

* * *

 **And another chapter is finally done. So sorry again for taking so long. I've recently been staying up later just to write, and I'm getting back into that flow even though it's messing with my sleep schedule a little bit. But it's all good. I'll find a balance again soon... maybe. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you're looking forward to the next one. See you all then.**


	23. Pay Dirt

"And here we are," Shadow said as their bot rode up to the pier. "Back at Green Hill."

"Good," Knuckles said as Shadow killed the engine to the boat. "Because papa needs to gets paid."

"We may as well talk to Avery now whilst we have the chance," Sonic agreed. "Also, there's something that's been bugging me..."

"What would that be?" Tails asked as they all began leaving the boat, stepping onto the wood of the pier.

"Well, I just remembered that I have a car," said Sonic. "I drove myself, Tails, and Shadow to Green Hill Police Department on our first day in said car."

"Really?" Knuckles asked. "Why haven't you gotten it back yet?"

"I guess that after the fatal crash and becoming freelance agents and being super busy, I must have forgotten about it," Sonic shrugged.

"It's cool," Tails said. "We can go pick it up when we talk to the big boss bear."

"Will we even need it?" asked Shadow. "I mean, we use Knuckles' car almost all of the time."

"We may as well get it back," Tails suggested. "Just as a last resort. Also so that Sonic can take Amy out on more dates."

"We should get Tails a car, in that case," said Knuckles. "More dates with Cosmo."

"Eh, I'd rather have you drive me," Tails said. "I can drive; I just choose not to."

"That reminds me," the red echidna threw in, "I really should start charging you guys some form of fare."

"Typical of a cab driver," Sonic said with a smirk. "Asking people for money that they don't have."

"Hell, if you're good at your job, why not get paid for it?" Knuckles said as they approached his car.

"Knuckles, that's not employment," said Tails. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that it's extortion, which is a crime."

"Is it really extortion if you're asking to be paid by your best friends because you're such a good driver?"

"Yes!" the other three said in unison.

"Aw..."

They all shared a laugh and got into the car, with Knuckles starting it up and pulling out of the pier, making his way for Green Hill Police Department. During the drive, he made sure to put on some tunes to keep them all occupied.

Soon, they pulled up to their destination. As soon as they managed to find a good parking spot, the car radio began sounding off. Shadow, who was in the shotgun seat, picked it up and answered it with a sigh, wondering if they suddenly had more work.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Oh, h-hi," the voice on the other end said.

"Cosmo?" Knuckles guessed. "Is that you?"

"Um... yeah..." she replied sheepishly.

"What are you doing calling up our car? Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, everything's fine!" she said, a bit more hurried than she meant. "Is... um... is Tails there?"

The red echidna smiled. "Yeah. I'll pass you over." He turned and pulled the microphone behind himself, handing it to the yellow fox.

"I'm here," he said.

"Tails... um... I was wondering..." Cosmo trailed off, clearly nervous.

"And usually I'm the nervous one," Tails chuckled. "It's fine. You can say anything."

"I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me?" she asked in what seemed like one breath.

"Sure," Tails said. "When?"

"In about ten minutes," she replied, a bit more calmed down. "That's when my usual break is."

"That's pretty good timing," said Tails. "Me and the others have to talk to Avery anyway."

"Okay," Cosmo smiled. "I'll see you inside."

She then turned her radio off, and Tails did the same before tilting his head slightly in confusion. "Why didn't she just wait until we were inside?"

"I have no clue," Sonic shrugged. "Come on. Let's get in there and talk to our boss."

The others agreed, with all four getting out of the car and making their way to the entrance of the station. They all walked through, with Mina at the main desk, but no sign of Cosmo. Regardless, they kept on walking forward.

"Hey, boys," Mina said cheerfully. "Didn't expect to see you guys again so soon."

"We just need to talk to Avery about a couple of things," Sonic said. "Could you call him for us and let him know that we're here?"

"Sure," the mongoose nodded.

"By the way," Tails said, "where's Cosmo?"

"She's here," smiled Mina, kicking to her left. On cue, there was a sound of complaint and some pain as Cosmo stood up.

"Um... h-hi..." she said.

"Hi yourself..." Tails replied, also turning to blush.

"Seriously, if you two could stop being so damn adorable, we have business to attend to," Knuckles joked.

"Yeah, we know," said Tails and Cosmo at the same time, causing them both to chuckle and blush more.

"Whereabouts is Avery?" Sonic asked Mina.

"Meeting room," she replied. "Doing a routine presentation with Ash and Simian. Rotor's there too with your test results."

"Oh, good," Sonic said. "Let's go find out whether we passed or not."

"Thanks, Mina," Shadow added as they turned to head for the elevator.

"No problem!" she replied.

As Knuckles started leaving with the two hedgehogs, he noticed his two-tailed fox friend still stood there. Smirking a bit to himself, he pulled on Tails' arm to both get his attention and to pull him along with the others.

"S-Sorry," Tails said as he stumbled a bit.

"No need to be sorry," Knuckles shrugged with a smile as they got into the elevator. "You're just having a moment with your lady friend. I get it."

Sonic shook his head and pressed the third floor button. "You'd better wipe that blush off your face, dude. Avery might notice it and call you out."

"That wouldn't be a bad thing, though," Tails shrugged. "Right?"

"Nah," the blue hedgehog said. "It'd just be embarrassing. Mostly on you. It'll be hard to talk about how much money we're making and how we did for our tests this morning with you looking like some half-fox, half-tomato hybrid."

"But I'm a very cute and fluffy half-fox, half-tomato hybrid," Tails pointed out.

"You are indeed," Sonic smiled as the elevator door opened. "All right, let's not waste any more time."

The others agreed, all making their way to Avery's office with Sonic leading them. As they reached the door, Sonic made a point to carefully knock on it, waiting for a response. Soon, they heard a call.

"Come on in!" said Avery's voice.

The four entered, seeing their former commander smiling as they walked in. Since there were many empty seats, they decided to sit close to each other, waiting for Ash to finish his presentation.

Sonic noticed something odd on the screen, pointing to it. "What's that?"

"Oh, this is something new that Vector and the others have been working on in the armoury," Ash smiled. "It's called a Gear Board. It runs on hover technology, and from the tests we've gone over, it can go over water, mud, ice, and any bad terrain that you can think of."

Sonic and the others got a good look at the Gear Board, seeing that its shape was similar to that of a regular skateboard/hover-board. It was rectangular with a sleek design, and had the basic Green Hill colours to make up its palette, with the G.H.P.D. logo and initials shrunk down to a small size and going along the front and back ends of the board respectively.

"I've read up on hover technology myself," Tails smiled. "My dad has been trying to work some out in his shop back home."

"Did you know about the boards before you came here?" asked Avery.

"We saw some prototypes of them being used in the training sessions," Shadow admitted. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to try them out for ourselves. We were focused more on what we excelled in."

"Ah, speaking of which, you should go see Rotor soon," Simian pointed out. "He's got some good news for you in regards to your powers."

"The good news just keeps piling on," Sonic said, a bit unenthusiastic.

"This is good good news," said Tails to his friend.

"Is something the matter?" asked Avery.

"We were doing a mission earlier today, and one of the bad guys took a cyanide pill," Knuckles said.

"What part of that is supposed to be a bad thing?" Ash asked.

"We were thinking that, if those pills still exist, that means that they got them from someone," said Sonic. "We just don't know who or where."

"I get it," Avery said. "You don't want to drag people into a fight that might be too big for you?"

"Yeah," Sonic smiled. "That's it. I know that we can't run our own missions any more as part of this freelance deal, but I feel like it's worth mentioning in case someone else bumps into it."

"Well, thanks for the heads up," said Avery, turning to Ash. "So, is there anything else for the presentation?"

"I've said all that I needed to say," Ash said, turning to the pad in his hands. "And just for reference, I saved the link in here to send to Sonic and the others to read it at their leisure."

"You hear that, Tails?" Knuckles said. "You get to read all about hover technology and the new Gear Boards at your leisure!"

"Just remember that I may have to wind up making boards for us four," Tails warned. "I might be tempted to make some tweaks of my own. Just saying..."

"For a short guy, you can be real threatening," Knuckles grinned.

Avery laughed and turned to Simian. "So, you'll have our men working on it as soon as possible?"

"Yes, sir," the gorilla replied as he stood up. "They'll be there to test out what the science geeks come up with."

"Good," the bear replied, turning to Ash. "And you?"

"I'll notify the aforementioned science geeks to get to work on it," the mongoose shrugged.

"That's what I like to hear," Avery smiled. "Now, off with you."

Ash nodded, walking out of the room, following Simian as he left. The two doors closed, and Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow noticed Avery looking at them expectantly. Quickly, the four huddled together, whispering.

"I'm not going to bring it up to him," Sonic said.

"You're our leader!" Knuckles replied. "And besides, it was Tails that brought it up!"

"That was before I was nervous about it when we were speeding across the ocean to stop a bunch of ass-holes from blowing more things up!" the yellow fox said.

"To be fair," Shadow threw in, "Knuckles was the most eager to get it out of the way."

"Trying to throw me under the bus?" the red echidna said. "Really?"

"Ah, don't worry about it," Tails smiled. "You could probably bench press that bus and dump it on Shadow in retaliation."

"All right, there's only one way to settle it," Sonic said. "Four way rock-paper-scissors. Odd man out has to bring it up with Avery."

"Even about your car?" Knuckles asked.

"No shit," Sonic replied. "All right, let's go."

With that, he and the others separated briefly before reaching out their left hands and forming a fist with their right. They all counted to three, slamming their fists into their hands with each count before lifting a fourth time to reveal the result.

"Scissors," said Sonic.

"Rock," said Knuckles.

"Paper," said Shadow.

"Rock," said Tails. "Sonic loses."

"How?" the blue hedgehog asked. "My scissors beats Shadow's paper."

"Yeah, but there are two rocks against you," said Knuckles. "Face it, blue boy."

Sonic grunted. "All right, fine."

"I'm not saying that that wasn't entertaining," Avery spoke up, "but could you boys hurry it up? I've got a police department to hold together."

"We've been meaning to ask," Sonic began, "but what about our... um..."

"Your um what?" Avery pressed.

"Money," Sonic blurted out. "I mean, how are we getting paid?"

"That's something I'm sorting out, actually," said Avery, smiling. "I've been in talks with the bank about how to wire money to your account. Technically, you are still getting money from Green Hill Police Department, but they're setting it up so that, whatever city you wind up helping, that city's police department will pay you."

"So, whichever city will help, that department pays us?" Sonic asked, clarifying.

"Ooh, an echo," Knuckles smiled.

"Pretty much," the bear confirmed. "Any other questions?"

"I was just wondering if my car was still here," asked the blue hedgehog.

"Indeed it is," said Avery. "It's in the lot out back. We had to move it there to prevent any parking tickets. I'll make a call to deliver it to your base."

"Thank you," Sonic said, smiling. "Sorry to put you through this."

"It's no trouble at all," Avery smiled back. "Just focus on doing your job out there, okay?"

"We will," Sonic said.

"Good," Avery nodded. "Now get on out of here and go see Rotor."

"Will do," said Tails. "Thanks for the heads up."

The commander smiled in reply and waited as the four got up to leave, sighing as the door closed. He sat down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I swear, those four are going to be the death of me. Good kids, but still..."

Outside the door, the quartet of friends decided not to waste any time, going for the elevator. They called it, waited, and when it arrived, they took it to the ground floor, waiting patiently to reach their destination.

The elevator dinged and opened up again, and the four stepped out, immediately making way for the morgue to see Rotor. They walked in on him examining another body, its naked feet with a fresh tag on one of the toes.

"Damn," Sonic spoke, grimacing.

"Yeah..." Rotor agreed. "Another Fokus overdose victim. Male, mid-twenties, Caucasian..."

"Can't say that this is what I was looking forward to when we were told to come down here," Knuckles sadly admitted.

Rotor shook his head. "I'll be right with you. Just give me a minute to put this one in the fridge."

The others gave a grim nod as Rotor picked up his key to open the fridge, wheeling the fresh corpse into the cold room. After a few more moments, Rotor reappeared, locking the room behind him as he addressed Sonic and the others.

"So, Avery told you to come down here, I'm guessing?" the purple walrus asked.

"Not to offend you, but we really didn't want to come here by choice," said Shadow.

"Nobody ever does," Rotor shrugged.

"Nobody ever does what?" Tails asked. "Offend you or come here by choice?"

"Both," Rotor. "Even if they do decide to pop up without prompting from a superior, it's only if it's important. Much like it is for you four." He then smiled and beckoned them over with a hand. "Come and look at this."

The others walked over to join him, seeing him begin typing into a computer screen. After a few more clicks and clacks, an image popped up before being split into four separate images, each containing a different blood sample.

"I think I managed to dig deeper into your abilities with your samples," Rotor said.

"Are these the same ones as before?" asked Sonic.

"They are indeed," Rotor nodded happily.

"Wouldn't the blood have dried up by this point?" Tails asked.

"Actually, no," said Rotor. "See, the implants in your body don't just heal the parts of you that they're in, but the release a small electrical surge through your body, making your blood cells work harder to repair. Due to this, your blood samples are still fresh because the blood cells are being kept alive and preserved, even though they're nowhere near your body for the implants to work."

"That's actually pretty cool," said Knuckles. "Super blood... that's a creepy-ass power, but a nice sounding one."

Rotor chuckled. "That aside, I think that your powers tie in to your training at the academy in some way, as well as your personalities."

"How do you mean?" Tails asked.

"Well, let's start with Sonic," Rotor said, turning to the blue hedgehog. "You hold the all time speed record for the academy's final training exams, and you excelled in that along with high jumping and long jumping before actually coming to the academy itself."

"I guess I just like to go fast," Sonic shrugged.

"That does explain why he's never been able to hold a steady girlfriend," Knuckles muttered under his breath.

"But with his speed comes an stamina as well," said Rotor. "I noticed from the tests earlier today that, of all of the others, you took the fewest breaths at the end. In fact, you barely even took any at all between the different parts of the course."

"I guess I'm just that good," Sonic smirked, turning to Knuckles, who hung his head and laughed a bit.

"Then there's Tails," said Rotor, typing on the keyboard and continuing on. "As we know, he is a well-accomplished mechanic, and is the smartest of you four."

"I guess I kind of am..." the yellow fox said sheepishly.

"But that did make me wonder how his power was flight," Rotor said. "I was especially interested by how his tails worked..."

"Kinda creepy," Tails quickly admitted.

"But then I remembered that his implant isn't in his tails, but in his spine," Rotor smiled. "More specifically, the point where his tails are attached to his spine."

"That makes sense," Tails shrugged. "I mean, that was where the most damage was done to me from the accident."

"Indeed," Rotor agreed. "But then I began thinking about how it could be related to you on a more personal level. Then I saw something when I was re-watching the tests from this morning, and I noticed you smiling as you flew."

"I've always liked the sky," Tails said. "The openness of it, the air, the freedom... I just really like that. I always tell my parents that I wished I could have gone for both piloting and intelligence tests at the academy, but since we were all only allowed one each and pretty much everyone else had decided to sign up for flying, that left me with only one other option."

"Have you flown planes before?" Knuckles asked.

"My dad was a pilot," Tails confirmed. "He taught me everything that I know today."

"Sure beats the hell out of 'I like to go fast'," Sonic chuckled.

Rotor smiled. "Regardless, seeing Tails being free whilst flying only served to confirm my suspicions about his power." He then pressed more onto the keyboard. "And now on to Knuckles."

"Ooh, it's my turn," the red echidna said a bit childishly.

Rotor chuckled and kept going. "With Knuckles, I noticed something unique about his strength, especially at the last part of his course. In some way, this made him the easiest one to judge for his personality."

"How do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"When I saw Knuckles try harder and harder, it wasn't because he wanted to become stronger," said Rotor. "It was because he wanted to keep pushing forward, despite the obstacle in front of him. He showed pure passion and determination with each hit."

Knuckles shrugged. "That's just me, I guess. I like enjoying the things I do, and if that thing benefits others as well as me, then I've got nothing to worry about."

"You might joke around a lot, but you're a big damn hero," Sonic smirked.

"I try," Knuckles smiled.

"And lastly, we have Shadow," said the purple walrus, typing again. "Now, because of how Shadow is, it was a little bit more tricky to tell how he acted during his performance."

"Shadow might not look it," said Tails, "but I like to think that he does enjoy helping people, much in the same way that Knuckles does."

"Maybe so," Rotor nodded. "Even still, it took a few re-watches, and I really had to focus on Shadow's face to try and see if anything changed when he did what he did."

"And how'd that go?" Knuckles asked.

"On a scale of one to ten?" Rotor replied. "Zilch."

"So, is there any point in me even being here?" Shadow asked.

"There is," said Rotor. "Even though it wasn't easy to tell from your face, the way that the rest of you reacted as you carried on was a lot more tangible. You steadied yourself, and you were a lot more focused and calm."

"And here I had him as unstable and full of angst," Knuckles muttered, earning and elbow in the side from Tails.

"Watching you during your test this morning was like watching you for your final trial at the academy for the Zaytsev shot," Rotor said. "You were calm, collected, and focused on what you wanted to achieve, and you achieved it."

Shadow smiled and folded his arms. "I don't really know what you want me to tell you in that regard, but I guess that I've always tried to do that. After my past, I wanted to work hard and keep my mind on the right track to become a better person."

Sonic threw his arms up. "Seriously? Everyone else said something cool and inspiring, and all that I could come up with was the fact that I like going fast?"

The others chuckled, and Rotor turned back to Shadow. "Well, if your tests are anything to go by for this morning, I'd say that you've achieved that."

"Thank you," the black and red hedgehog nodded respectfully.

"As for you," Rotor turned back to Sonic, "I'm going to give you another chance to give me a better explanation of your own personality."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "I guess it's the same reason that Tails likes the sky; the freedom of it. I've always liked how running feels, and it makes me happy. People sometimes bring up about me almost going to the Olympics. The truth is that I didn't want that."

"How come?" Knuckles asked. "You could have totally aced it! Think of all of the gold medals that you could have brought back to Green Hill!"

Sonic laughed at his friend before shrugging. "I just didn't want to. It was one of those rare moments where I wanted to do something selfless. I was already heavily debating wanting to become a cop anyway, and despite how good the offer was to become a professional athlete, the offer of saving as many people as I can each day heavily outweighs any sum of money."

"This coming from the guy who asked our former commander about our payment plan," Tails said.

"Hey, I was the odd man out at rock-paper-scissors," Sonic defended. "I had no choice."

Rotor smiled. "So, I take it that you're all happy with your choices?"

"We are," Sonic said. "Are you happy with our answers?"

"Oh, I didn't really need your answers," Rotor said. "You mostly just gave them without me asking for them. But I'm happy with them nonetheless. You all have your reasons for wanting to help and your differences, but the more I see of you four, the more I realise that maybe, just maybe, Avery might have been right in picking you in the first place."

"There were tons of others picked when we made the jump from the academy to the department," Knuckles said. "What makes us so special?"

Rotor grinned. "You were the only four of the new graduates that got to see him personally for the first time. He specifically asked for you."

"I guess that answers my question," Knuckles shrugged.

"Why us?" Sonic asked.

"Your performances, your attitude, your dedication, the records you all set... take your pick," Rotor grinned.

"I guess that we got lucky," Tails smiled.

"I honestly can't help you there," the purple walrus replied. "Anyway, get on out of here. I've told you what I needed to."

"Will do," Sonic said. "Thanks, Rotor."

"Any time."

With that, they all turned to leave. As they did, Cosmo smiled and stood waiting outside. "There you guys are," she smiled.

"Hey there, Cosmo," said Sonic. "Here to pick up your date?"

Cosmo smiled. "Yep. It's a double date today, since Ash and Mina are coming."

"He never mentioned that when we were in the meeting room," Sonic pointed out.

The green girl nodded, turning to Tails. "Is that okay with you?"

Tails nodded. "That's fine. I've got no problem with it." He turned to his other friends. "See you guys later."

"Take care," Knuckles said. "And swing back to the base when you're all done, okay?"

"Will do!" the yellow fox waved.

"Why are we saying goodbye if we're all going outside anyways?" Sonic pointed out.

"Oh... right..." Tails said, putting his hand down from waving.

They grouped up and headed outside, seeing Ash as he came down stairs. He greeted the two before moving over to welcome Mina with a kiss before the two mongooses then opened the entrance doors, letting the others go out first before following. Soon, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow hopped into the red echidna's car whilst the other four got into a G.H.P.D. vehicle, letting Cosmo drive.

"All right, let's head back to base," said Sonic.

"I'm on it," Knuckles said, looking out to see a helicopter flying over. "Huh. It's your car, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog looked up to see a dark blue, sleek looking vehicle hovering overhead, attached to a helicopter via a cable as it flew in the direction of their new base. He couldn't fight his small smile. "Good old Avery." He then turned to the sound of a honk, seeing Tails, Cosmo, Mina, and Ash waving. Sonic and the others waved back before Sonic turned to Knuckles.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," the red echidna replied, pulling the vehicle out from the lot.

 **Back in Westopolis...**

Nack was sat in his office, waiting patiently by his phone as he searched through his computer. Considering how much more high-tech everyone else was nowadays, Nack had to find a way around that lest he get caught out, so using an older style computer in a derelict prison was a big help.

As for what he was doing on his computer, he was looking through his business transactions, smiling to himself as he watched the money roll right in. "Ah... this is good to see. I will say, I expected Lara to be in the lead, but Beau's really impressing me thus far. Turns out that a lot of people in this city are fans of Fokus." A knock then sounded at his door. "Come in."

One of Nack's henchmen walked in. "Sir, we just got back from fixing up your car."

"Brilliant," Nack smiled. "I'll come down and check it out in a bit."

"How are the transactions going?"

"Surprisingly well," said Nack. "Although I do worry that, at this rate, we'll have more money than product. But it doesn't concern me that much."

"How so?"

"Well, the only product to worry about is really the Fokus. Beau might be in the lead at the moment, and whilst it is true that he knows how to make the drug and how to tell others to make it too, they can't go overboard with it."

"An overdose..." the human said.

"Exactly," replied the purple weasel. "It's an unnecessary risk, and I'm not willing to take it." Before anything else could be said, the phone went off. Nack picked it up. "Hello?" he asked.

"Nack, it's Martin," said the voice on the other side.

"Ah, I've been waiting to hear from you," Nack replied. "How did the trap go?"

"It went really well," said Martin. "I'm sending you a picture right now. Hang on."

After a few moments, Nack's computer made a high-pitched blip sound, and in the bottom right corner was a new e-mail. He clicked it and opened it up to see a picture of four Mobians who looked like police officers, but then he noticed something.

"Those four sure don't look like cops," he said.

"They're freelancers," said Martin.

"Damn. That accident must have made things worse for them than I thought," Nack said, rubbing his temple a bit.

"The one that you set up?"

"The very same," Nack said. "I thought that, even if the crash didn't kill them, then they'd have lost a lot more."

"I think I might have an explanation," Martin said.

Nack sat back and grinned a bit. "I'm listening."

"Well, my guess is that they were cops for a different jurisdiction, and when they went after you in Star Light, they went outside of their jurisdiction, which can get them into trouble," Martin said. "Did you see what uniforms they were wearing on the night?"

"I couldn't make them out," the purple weasel shook his head. "It was late at night in a dark warehouse, so."

"I think I managed to spot one of them," said Nack's lackey.

Nack turned to his henchmen. "Oh? Do tell. Please."

The human nodded. "It wasn't easy, but I believed that I spotted one wearing a uniform with a symbol of a bear. I couldn't make out the initials, though."

Nack nodded, turning his attention back to the phone. "Did you get all that?"

"Yeah," Martin said. "A bear symbol, right? That can only mean... oh. Oh, that's so good."

"What is it?" Nack demanded.

"You're dealing with some Green Hill cops," Martin said, unable to hide his own laughter.

"Wait..." Nack breathed. "Those same cops that fucked up the Fokus deal at that car station?"

"So, it is them..." said the human, recognising them.

Nack shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Thank you, Martin. That'll be all. And tell Brookes that he's earned a little raise."

"Will do," Martin replied. "Take care."

The two then hung up, and Nack sat back in his chair, closing his eyes with a sigh of exasperation. "I don't know how to feel about all this."

"About what?" his lackey asked.

"Those cops coming back," Nack said. "I mean, I thought that I killed them. It's a good thing that I found some really expendable people to take that risk." He then sat forward again. "At the same time, it's no risk to try and do them in all over again. In short, I'm pissed off that they're still alive, but I'm happy that they can't come after me directly. And yet, knowing that they can't come after me directly means that trying to kill them all over again will be quite tricky..."

"So, what will your next move be?" his henchman asked. "You can't just devote your time into taking them out. You have bigger things to focus on in Westopolis."

Nack nodded. "I know. From what I've heard about freelance agents, they'll usually have their own base in the same jurisdiction that they got fired from. What happened at Aqua Lake was meant to just be an accident, and those cops were never meant to turn up. But they did. It wasn't even bait, and they still latched onto it." He then stood up. "Do I have any meetings today?"

"Lara did actually ask to see you. She said that it's important."

The purple weasel nodded. "Hmm... do I have any other contacts in Green Hill that aren't dead or arrested?"

"Not that I know of," said the henchman. "Maybe the ones that got locked up have been moved to a proper prison by now."

Nack grinned. "That's the best news that I've heard all day." He walked around his table. "Come on. Let's take a look at my new ride."

The henchman nodded, following as Nack walked past him and out of his office door. The two went downstairs and saw Nack's other bodyguard waiting patiently just outside the door, turning and gesturing to the car.

The vehicle that they'd stolen when they first gotten into Westopolis went from a derelict looking heap of junk to a repainted, reworked, and redesigned car. It was made back up from bottom to top, with its new coat of paint being a gorgeous dark silver. The interior had black seats and lining, the wheels were almost shining white as their chrome contrasted against the deathly black tyres.

"This looks amazing," Nack smiled.

"It gets better," said one his henchmen. "You mentioned that there were some old cars in the garage of the prison, right?"

"Yeah," Nack said. "Why?"

"We took the liberty of taking a few up to your mechanic to help," he admitted.

"Good thinking," said Nack, pulling out his cell phone. "I need to make a call." He typed in Lara's number first, waiting for her to pick up.

She did, answering. "I will admit, whilst I don't mind the call, I'd much rather you get here before we conduct our business."

"I will still go back with you to discuss this manner of importance that you need to talk out with me," Nack conceded. "But I need to meet you and the other two at the city's centre again."

"It must be important if you want to meet us all personally," Lara surmised. "All right, let me get ready and I'll be there soon."

"Thank you," Nack said, receiving a word of goodbye before hanging up and quickly typing in Beau's number.

"Hey there, big boss!" the southern snake said. "How can I help?"

"City centre. Half an hour. Big meeting."

"Say no more, even though you didn't say much in the first place," Beau said. "I'll be over as quick as I can get there."

Nack shook his head before hanging up, punching in Manuel's number. Soon, it picked up, and Nack spoke first. "Hey there."

"Hey, man," Manuel replied. "What's up?"

"I need all three of you at the centre," Nack said simply. "It's important."

"Are the others already going?"

"Yes."

Manuel sighed. "Yeah, I'll be there."

"Thank you," Nack said, hanging up and thinking of pocketing his phone before staying still. After a few more moments, he typed in Martin's personal number.

"I wasn't expecting you to call me this quickly," Martin said as soon as he answered.

"It's actually important," said Nack. "I need you to meet me at the centre of the city."

Martin grunted a bit. "I can't just take time off work. They're already suspicious of my many anonymous phone calls. Believe it or not, not every cop on Westopolis' force is corrupt, even if almost all of us are on your payroll."

"You're the only one who knows that he's on that payroll, Martin," Nack said. "I need you for this."

The cop sighed. "All right, I'll be there."

"Alone."

Martin sighed again. "Of course I'll be alone. Do you think I'm fucking stupid?"

"You're a cop," the purple weasel said. "Cops have a really lousy tendency to be stupid and not listen when they're told to go somewhere alone, regardless of how much they're getting paid from a more... let's say, untrustworthy source. Do you understand?"

"I'll be there," Martin said, hanging up.

"Good," Nack grinned, still holding the phone to his ear before putting it away.

"Are you sure that inviting a cop along is a good idea?" one of Nack's men asked.

"Well, that depends," Nack replied. "If he gets shot in the first five seconds, then it's a bad idea. If he convinces the others not to shoot him, then it was a good idea."

"You expect everyone there to have guns?" the other henchman asked.

Nack smiled and flashed his own gun in his coat. "I'd be very disappointed if they didn't show up with guns, to be frank with you." He then got into the car, followed by the others. He got into the backseat as usual, laying back and tipping his hat to cover his eyes. "No music. I want a nice, peaceful drive."

"I will ask," said the henchman, "how important is this meeting if you're willing to bring your cop friend into this?"

"First of all, no cop can be a friend of mine," Nack said. "And if you want to know how important this all is, drive us there and see for yourself."

The henchman nodded with a slight grunt as he switched the engine on for the car, soon pulling out of the small driveway leading to the prison before heading directly for the centre as Nack kicked back in the backseat, resting his eyes.

* * *

 **And that about wraps it up for this chapter. Also, would you look at that? I actually put this out relatively on time! Okay, so not as quickly as I would have liked, but it's a lot quicker than my last... what, ten chapters? Eleven? Eh, who's counting? Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. I'll see you all next time, whenever that may be. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.**


	24. The Hard Sell

Tails and Cosmo were seated in the backseat of a G.H.P.D. vehicle as Ash drove it with Mina riding shotgun. The two decided to head to Jade Mountain, and they were soon approaching their desired destination. It didn't take long for Ash to find a parking space, and he cut the engine, waiting for the others to leave the car before getting out himself, locking the vehicle behind him.

Tails took a whiff of the air. "Ah... got to love Jade Mountain."

"For a relatively new place, it's doing really well," said Mina. "The whole Nack situation aside, of course."

Tails smiled as they began their walk to the restaurant. "So, how long have you and Ash been together?"

"A couple of years," said Ash. "But we only got to start dating more just recently."

"How come?"

"Their work in different parts of the department," Cosmo answered the yellow fox as they reached Jade Mountain. "Because of Mina being a secretary, she has more free time, as do I. But for Ash, he's a much harder worker, having to put together his presentations mostly on his own."

"Up until recently," Ash smiled. "With the new graduates from the academy, a lot of those have been super helpful with the presentations. It took a couple of days, but they soon got the hang of things pretty quickly, and I don't put in as much work as I used to, but I still oversee things."

Tails nodded and opened the door, letting the others into the restaurant before him. He received a playful tap on his nose from Cosmo, causing him to blush a bit before closing the door behind him and joining them on the table.

"I'll get the order in," said Ash. "What's everyone having?"

"Small ribs and fries," said Tails.

"Make that a double," Cosmo replied. "But with some orange juice."

"And I'll have some medium ribs and fries to share with you," Mina said. "That way, whatever we don't finish, we can just reheat when we get back home."

"Or back to the office?" Cosmo smirked.

"They're basically the same thing," Ash chuckled. "We really should focus more on our own place." He then turned to go to the front desk, focusing on getting the order in.

"Speaking of living conditions, how's the new base, Tails?" Mina asked.

"Uh, it's pretty good," Tails said. "Could do with more bedrooms since we only seem to have about eight, but it's a huge place and it's easy to get around."

"I helped with some of the design," Mina smiled. "So did Cosmo."

"Actually, there's a little bit of a touch from all of us," the plant girl smiled. "Even Ash managed to help with his crazy schedule."

Tails nodded and chuckled. "I just kinda wish that there was something more that me and the guys could do to make it feel more like home, you know? I mean, I love it as it is, and you guys and the rest of the department did a great job, but it's lacking that special element."

"Maybe because you guys still have your own places away from the base?" asked Mina.

Tails shrugged. "Probably. But my parents are nice enough, so they'd be fine with me moving out to the base full-time. I think that they did their letting go when I went to the academy, and subsequently the department."

Cosmo giggled. "If they don't fully let go when you move to the base, then I don't know what will."

"Maybe telling them that I have a girlfriend?" Tails suggested.

Cosmo blushed. "You'd tell them?" She then paused. "Wait... you haven't told them?"

The yellow fox looked a bit sheepish, but shook his head and spoke. "I was going to, but things have been super busy. Hell, I haven't had much change to tell them about the new base and such."

"What about your accident?" asked Mina.

"They were told immediately by G.H.P.D. anyway, so I didn't have to really say anything," Tails said. "I just think that they're glad that I'm still alive."

"We all are," Cosmo smiled, gently stroking her hand along Tails' own hand.

The three then looked to the direction of the desk as Ash called them, bringing the food in its tray. He set it down and sat next to Mina before they all began sorting the grub out into what was whose.

Mina then saw a drink of coke, growing confused. She grew even more confused as Ash handed it over to her. "Um... I didn't ask for one."

"Oh, it was free," her boyfriend replied. "Apparently, there's this new thing that they're trying out for the shop; every three boxes of ribs that you buy, regardless of size, you get a free drink thrown in."

"Huh," Tails said. "That's a pretty good policy."

"So, what were you guys talking about before I came back and ruined everything?" Ash smirked, getting some laughs from the others.

"Just going over Tails' family and his thoughts on the new place," said Cosmo, answering the male mongoose's question.

"It's still a bit weird, because it wasn't that long ago that I was an actual cop," Tails said. "It's strange being a freelancer; we work for whoever we want, but in the worst case scenario, we're just backup. It'd be better if we could just set our own stuff up. It's odd being called a freelance agent and feeling like you're on parole for one dumb mistake..."

"Do you regret doing it?" Cosmo asked Tails.

The yellow fox shook his head. "I used to. I mean, Sonic did give me and the others a chance to back out, because he was willing to take all that blame for us. But we stuck with him, and we got in trouble for it." He then gave a chuckle. "So, I guess it was kinda worth it in the end."

"I dunno," said Ash. "I feel like the freelancers thing should be more of a form of initiation."

"Wouldn't that get confusing?" Mina asked. "I mean, Tails and the others are based in Green Hill, but they've gone to a fair few different places to help out. How would that work as initiation?"

"Hmm... I worded that wrong," the male mongoose admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "What I meant was, give something like that to rookies to try and get used to it. That way, it'll let them figure out if they want to be a full-time cop and handle their own stuff whilst sticking to one jurisdiction, or become a free agent and be able to help anywhere that they want, but they can't run their own ship."

"Yeah, that one was definitely worded better," Tails smiled. "I see what you mean, though. It's not a bad idea, but wouldn't it seem like the academy training might kind of go to waste?"

"Well, without meaning to sound too harsh, that didn't stop you guys from trying," Mina shrugged.

"Yeah, and look where it got us," Tails shook his head.

"Come on, she said that she didn't want to sound too harsh," Cosmo said. "She didn't really succeed, but."

The yellow fox chuckled. "I get what she meant. Yeah, we gave it a shot. But that doesn't mean that others who pull it off will be as fortunate as us. I mean, we're only where we are because we're still rookies and it was our first offence. On our first day. We got super damn lucky that the judge gave us a pass."

"Yeah, especially from Ryker," said Mina. "The dude is not known for his fairness as a judge. Then again, as a judge, he does need to remain as impartial as he can."

"Unfortunately, he didn't need more than the accounts going into your court date," Ash added. "They were all solid, and all true."

"Okay, we're on a double date here," Tails said, breaking the flow. "I'd like to spend time with my pretty lady and not focus on when me and my friends screwed up."

Cosmo giggled. "They have a point. And, to be honest, it did make things go fairly quickly. You got off easy."

"It's weird to say that," Tails said. "Ryker seemed like such a nice guy. I guess that doesn't change that he can be kind of harsh. But he's just doing his job, so I get it."

"There's one thing that's been bugging me about this whole freelance thing," said Mina.

"What'd that be?" asked Cosmo.

"Well, it's about when you guys asked if you'd technically be bounty hunters and the judge basically gave you the vague answer of maybe," said Mina. "I think he might have skipped a step."

"What do you mean?" asked Tails.

"Well, bounty hunters are usually allowed out on their own," Mina said. "I think that Ryker might have blurred the lines a bit for you and the others."

Tails sighed and sat back, sagging a bit. "That kinda sucks, to be honest."

Before the others could answer, the door opened, catching their attention. Tails recognised the new arrival instantly as Amy Rose. She wore a red tank top, blue jeans, and drown pumps, slinging her bag over her arm as she waved.

"Hi!" she smiled, jogging over.

"Amy?" Tails said, smiling. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I the kids had a half day today at school," Amy smiled back. "Me and the other teachers all got to leave early."

"That's cool," Tails said, then noticing the confusion of the other people with him. "Oh, this is Amy Rose. We saved her and some others on our first night as cops. Amy, this is Mina, Ash, and Cosmo."

"Hi," Amy smiled, shaking their hands. "Could I sit with you guys?"

"Sure thing," they said. Ash and Mina scooted over as Amy got a chair, bringing it over to sit with them. "So, what brings you guys here?"

"Lunch break," Mina said somewhat drily. "Same for you?"

"Yeah, minus the part about it being a break," the pink hedgehog shrugged. "It's just lunch for me, then I'm going home and falling into couch potato mode." She then turned to see Cosmo. "Ah, you must be the girl that I've been told about."

"Who told you about me?" Cosmo said.

"Sonic did," Amy giggled. "He mentioned about you being Tails' girlfriend."

"Aw..." the two mongooses sang together.

"Oh, give it a rest," Tails chuckled. "Yeah, Cosmo is... well, she's my girlfriend."

The plant girl nodded and blushed a bit. "I-I am."

Amy giggled more. "You guys are also as adorable together as Sonic mentioned you'd be."

"Yeah, I'd have to agree," Ash threw in. "You guys are cute together."

Tails and Cosmo replied by cuddling close and blushing more, and Amy smiled before losing said smile. "Hey, where are the other guys?"

"Oh, they went back to their new base to grab lunch," said Tails. "If you want, I'll take you up there when we're all done."

"Sure thing," Amy nodded. "Is Cosmo going to come with?"

"I would," Cosmo said, "but I've got to get back to work after this. I still actually work for the force, you know."

"Ah, that makes sense," Amy nodded. "So, what do you guys all do?"

"Well, me and Cosmo are secretaries, in a manner of speaking," said Mina. "I prefer that we be called entrance specialists."

"That's right," Cosmo smiled. "We take care of the ID cards, codes, and on very rare occasions to we actually bring food to people. Most of the cops usually get food from vending machines or drive up here to eat."

"What about you?" Amy said, turning to Ash.

"Oh, I work on the presentations," said Ash. "Basically, I edit together videos and pictures for the main briefing room. I put together the inaugural one for Tails and his gang on their first day at the department, actually."

"That's pretty cool," Amy smiled. "Do you have a fancy name for your job?"

Ash shook his head and chuckled. "I know that my job is fancy enough. Besides, entrance specialists makes Mina and Cosmo sound like thieves."

"We are ninjas, pretty much," Cosmo shrugged, earning some laughter.

"Come on," said Tails. "Let's focus on eating."

They all did, and after more conversation and laughter, they were soon done eating. Amy offered to take the now empty containers of food away and put them in the bin whilst the others got up and readied themselves to head back out.

"Should I get something on the way to the base?" Amy asked.

"Eh, I dunno," Tails said. "I think that the guys might be feeding themselves. By which I mean, I'm sure as shit not buying them food to bring back."

"That's a bit mean," Cosmo admonished.

"I'm allowed to be a bit mean once in a while," Tails shrugged.

"Oh, I will ask while I remember," said Mina. "What's the plan for getting Amy back to the base?"

"Just drive her there in our car, drop off Amy and Tails, then drive back to the department," Ash shrugged.

"Eh, we can risk being a bit late," Cosmo nodded.

They all packed up their stuff and left the restaurant, waving a kind goodbye to those behind the counter before exiting the restaurant proper and getting into the car, with Ash driving again. He started up the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

As they were driving away from Jade Mountain and getting ever closer to the freelancers' base, Amy got a brief glance at the police station. "Wow..."

"I know," Mina smiled. "It's pretty impressive, right?"

Amy nodded. "Yeah..." She then turned to Tails and playfully tapped his arm in the form of a slap. "Now, why did you get yourself fired from there?"

"It wasn't on purpose," Tails chuckled. "And besides, you might like our new base a bit better."

The pink hedgehog nodded and remained as silent as everyone else as the drive continued. Soon, they found themselves near the eastern side of the city, and Ash turned the car into a small alleyway.

"How does Ash know where it is?" Amy asked.

"Oh, he helped set up some stuff at the new base," Tails answered. "I'm guessing that Avery showed him where it was."

"You guessed that right," the male mongoose grinned. "I helped with some of the tech stuff, and Mina and Cosmo oversaw the overall look of the place."

"They did a good job too," Tails complimented, getting a kiss on the cheek from Cosmo in reply.

Ash smiled at the contact between the two before continuing his drive down the alleyway. He stopped the car in a good spot and waited for Tails and Amy to leave. But before he could pull the car back out of the alleyway, Cosmo left and quickly ran up to Tails. The two-tailed fox spotted her and caught her in his arms, lifting her for a deep kiss.

"Aw..." Amy beamed happily.

Cosmo and Tails soon broke from their embrace, and the plant girl was the first to speak. "See you... when?"

"Eh, whenever's fine with me," Tails chuckled.

Cosmo smiled and turned to walk away, getting back into the G.H.P.D. car and waving out of the window as it drove off. Tails gave out a dreamy sigh and Amy giggled at him, causing him to turn around and look at her with a blush.

"You two are so damn cute!" she gushed.

"Thank you..." Tails said, shaking his head. "Come on. Let's go meet the others. Well, you've already met them."

"Let's go check out the new place?" Amy suggested. "Or, mostly me. You already know what it looks like."

"We really need to work on that," Tails chuckled. "We still haven't had a chance to brainstorm on a name yet."

"Yeah," Amy said. "Calling you guys freelancers over and over can get a bit annoying."

"We'll come up with something," Tails shrugged. "Let's head inside."

Amy nodded, and the two knocked on the entrance doors. The camera on the side turned to look at them, and a voice spoke in a posh British accent. "Who dares to trespass on castle grounds?"

"Um..." Tails said, clearing his throat to speak back in a similar accent. "It is I, Sir Tails, with fair maiden Amy Rose!"

"We arrived thanks to a four-wheeled chariot," Amy added, playing along. "Sir Tails was kind enough to allow me to come over here and look at this place."

"Sir Tails the Fluffy hath made a good choice!" the voice said, before turning back to his normal accent. "All right, come on in."

Tails and Amy laughed and went inside, and the pink hedgehog got a good look around, letting out an impressed whistle. As she took a look, Sonic appeared from the communications room and held his stomach from laughing.

"You like my British accent?" he asked.

"It wasn't too bad," Tails replied. "I'm just surprised at how well Amy did."

She shrugged. "One of the kids that I teach is British, so I just take what I know from him and crank it up. Too much Game Of Thrones, I think."

"Yeah, I lost interest in that after season 10 happened," Sonic replied. "Damn George R. R. Martin, not releasing enough books to match the quota..."

"Dude was a perfectionist," Tails said.

"And he also looked like Santa Claus," Knuckles said. "But an evil Santa Claus who wrote what was basically Lord Of The Rings gone wild."

"So, what are you guys up to?" asked Amy.

"Oh, we're about to set up some Cards Against Mobius," Knuckles said. "Want to play?"

Amy nodded. "Sure. My sister's got some of those back home, and we play when we can. It's just not as fun with two people, though."

"I could believe that Rosy would like the game," Tails said. "She's... well, she's a nice enough person, but you're definitely the nicer sister."

"Oh, she knows that," Amy said with some insistence. "She's definitely the better player."

"We should bring her around for a session some time," said Sonic, hearing the oven ding. "Awesome! Chilli-dogs are all done!"

"Dinner and a show, huh?" Knuckles smirked as they all walked into the kitchen. "Nice."

"All right, let's get this game on," said Tails, setting up the radio. "We can't do this without some good tunes."

"Can I pick something?" Amy asked as they all sat down.

"Sure."

"Got any While She Sleeps?"

"Only all of their stuff ever," Sonic smiled, setting the food on the kitchen table.

As Tails went to set up the music, Knuckles smirked at Amy. "So, you're pretty, you're kind, you teach a kindergarten class, and you have great taste in music. Were you just forged somewhere specifically for Sonic?"

"Not to mention that she's also a hedgehog," said Shadow. "She's pretty much the female version of Sonic."

"I've got no problem with that," the blue hedgehog replied as Tails returned to sit down. "All right. Let's get this show on the road."

 **Back in Westopolis...**

Nack was being driven ever closer to the park in his new car, anticipating the meeting with his current business associates - Martin included. Nack didn't need to worry about if it was a good idea, but knowing that Martin had never met or dealt with Manuel, Beau, or Lara before did put a slight crimp on his plans.

"Are you not worried about this meeting at all?" one of his henchmen asked.

"Normally, I would be, but I don't really have to be worried yet," Nack said. "Martin will show up in his cop uniform, that's true. It's also true that Manuel pushes guns, Lara sells sex, and Beau moves drugs around. But those three know enough about Westopolis' police force to know that they're now the most altruistic people."

"How do you mean?" asked the other henchman, who was driving.

"What I mean is the fact that it's hard to be an honest cop in a dishonest city," Nack said. "Luckily, Martin is a cop who's honest about the fact that he's dishonest to people that he knows are also dishonest."

"But he doesn't know the dishonest people that he's about to meet."

"He will," Nack responded. "And if he doesn't pick up on their dishonesty right off the bat, then they'll be quick to remind him. Luckily, he's also dishonest, so it should balance out."

"Seems risky," said the driver.

"There's not anything that happens here that isn't risky," Nack reminded. "You'd do well to keep that in mind."

Soon, the car began to slow down as they were approaching the park, with Lara and Beau already waiting there for them, their own vehicles resting near the park. Finding a good spot, the driver got out of the car, walking to the back of it to open the door for Nack.

"Thank you," the purple weasel smiled, walking up to Lara and Beau. "Glad you two could make it."

Lara, wearing a white blouse over a dark green tank top along with a black pencil skirt and brown boots, smiled. "Thank you for inviting us."

"So, what's this about?" asked Beau, wearing a dark brown hoodie over a white t-shirt along with blue jeans and black trainers.

"I'll get to that when Manuel arrives," said Nack.

"I was going to say," said Lara. "When you called us, it sounded rather urgent. It's not a money problem, is it?"

"No, not at all," Nack said. "All of your cash is being handled well, and you're making back even more now, thanks to my donation to help you. I'm glad to see that you put it to good use."

"I did too..." Beau said.

"And yet you still needed help in creating Fokus to sell that," Nack said. "By the way, how is that going?"

"Not too bad," said the snake. "I've gotten my guys to try and synthesise the ingredients, as we have to travel way too fucking far to get the original stuff. Do you know how hard it is to recreate all the stuff put into Fokus? It's not easy, man."

"I know," said Nack. "Plus, I do prefer the original over the synthetic version."

"I really don't want to ask, now do I care," added Lara, looking at Beau, "but how are you testing the synthetic versions?"

"Some of my guys are willingly mixing them without influence from Fokus," Beau said. "There's different chemical reactions, some positive and others... not so much. Hopefully, we can refine it and get it down to a better compound."

"There hasn't been any accidents, have there?" asked Nack.

"Nothing too serious," said Beau. "No overdoses have happened yet. Most of the accidents some from the testing and mixing the drugs together. You'll get the more dangerous stuff which feels more authentic, but will literally blow up in someone's face as the create it. In contrast to that, you have the stuff that's safer to make up and easier to synthesise, but at the same time it's easier to tell that it's synthesised."

"I could swing by and help, if you want," Nack offered.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll pass," Beau declined. "I'd rather see if I can get a handle on it myself."

Nack nodded, and soon noticed another car driving up over to them. It was a bulky vehicle, and a definite contrast to Nack's sleeker looking car, but it was easy to tell that it belonged to Manuel. Dark red in colour with a shiny finish on it, it pulled around the side, with the bull in question stepping out, this time wearing a yellow tank top, black baggy jeans, and brown boots.

"Sorry I'm late," Manuel said as he approached the others. "My girls were having a bit of trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Beau asked.

"Drug trouble," the bull replied. "They didn't get it from any of your guys, if it helps."

"So, what happened?" Lara asked.

"I caught them with some cocaine," Manuel said. "I know that that shit is commonplace in these parts, but... you know that I'm only doing what I do for them..."

"We know," Nack agreed. "You want your girls to get out of here and go to a better school."

"They deserve a life better than this one," Manuel confirmed.

"I know that you said otherwise," Beau spoke, "but if it was one of my guys who sold your girls the coke, then I'll be sure to have a word with them."

"They got it at school," said Manuel. "Some little prick slipped it into their bags when they weren't looking."

"Eh, don't worry about that kid," Nack said. "Kids at school will do anything to get attention these days."

Manuel nodded. "So, what's this big meeting about?"

"Ah, I can't tell you that," said Nack. "We're waiting on someone else."

"But you said that all that we had to do was wait for Manuel," Beau said. "Manuel is here now."

"I'm aware of that," Nack nodded. "But there's still one element missing." He turned his head as he heard another car. "And here is that very element."

The car itself was a mix of black and brown, and was more banged up and worn looking in contrast to the looks of other cop cars around Mobius. It had a symbol of a raised fist holding a heart, with the initials of W.P.D. written on a plaque underneath it.

"Sorry I'm late, guys," Martin said, stepping out of the vehicle. He wore the standardised Westopolis police uniform, being mostly brown with black accents. The man himself had a Caucasian skin tone, dark hair that was slicked back, and had dull brown eyes.

"What kept you?" Nack asked.

"Well, when you said about coming to the park, you didn't really narrow it down to which one," Martin said. "I live on the north side of the city, which is where my department also happens to be."

"Do they know that you're here?" Nack asked.

"I don't think that they give a shit," Martin shrugged.

"So..." Beau said. "A cop."

"Yes, I'm a cop," Martin nodded. "In case the uniform wasn't a giveaway already."

"Ooh... I like him," Beau chuckled. "So, what are you here for?"

"Nack invited me as part of some plan. If he invited you guys too, then that means that you have some part in the plan."

"You all do," Nack confirmed. "But it's not without risk."

"What do you need us to do?" asked Manuel.

"I need you to go to Green Hill and stage a jailbreak," Nack said.

"What for?"

"Ooh, you're going to love this," Nack smirked. "So, you three remember how I told you about those rookie cops from Green Hill?"

"The ones that you killed with that car crash?" asked Beau. "Although I'm assuming that they're not quite as dead as we first thought."

The purple weasel nodded. "Turns out that they survived. On the bright side, they got fired from their job as cops. On the negative, they are now freelancers."

"That last part's not too bad," said Martin. "Sure, they can go wherever they so choose, but that's only when they get called up for it."

"And nobody's got the common sense to call for any kind of authorities to help in Westopolis," Lara pointed out. "We either take care of ourselves, or we get taken out."

"So, how do we deal with a bunch of freelance cops?" Beau asked. "I mean, I get that they're hunting for you, but they can't come up here on their own unless some huge shit hits an even bigger fan."

"That's exactly what I'm planning on," said Nack. "And it's why I called for all of you, and why I needed Martin here as well."

"Did you set up the Aqua Lake job?" Beau asked.

"I did," the dirty cop confirmed. "Why?"

"I saw that live on the news," the Southern snake smiled. "Can't believe that you knew guys that were willing to completely destroy themselves just for a trap."

"You can thank Brookes for that one," said Martin. "He's a guy I've known for a while now, and as squeaky clean as he likes to think that he is, not even Aqua Lake is a safe place."

"Still," Manuel said, "setting up three big explosions on an island city? Not too shabby."

"As much as I appreciate the praise," said Nack, "we really should focus here."

"Ah, right," Lara said. "You came up with the plan in the first place?"

"He did," Martin confirmed. "Told me about it the other day. It took a little while for me to sort things with Brookes, but it paid off, so it was worth the wait."

"Anyway," Nack said, clearing his throat, "I know that I shouldn't be focused on a small group of cops, but they become a real thorn in one's side when you can't even kill them properly."

"Maybe try not to rely on drunk ass-holes and a car crash?" Beau suggested.

"I was on the run and wasn't in Green Hill that long," Nack said. "It was the best that I could come up with."

"You're lucky that they used to be cops," Martin said. "Then again, I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to work with Westopolis any more."

"They quit?" asked Beau.

"Yeah," Martin confirmed. "When you're no longer a cop, you can go wherever you want, but without having to be called up there."

"They were an extra insurance policy when I went to Green Hill," Nack said. "I knew that they weren't competent enough to handle the more sophisticated jobs, like these two," he finished, hooking his thumbs to point at his henchmen.

"Do they even have names?" asked Manuel.

"They do," said Nack. "But I won't tell you what they are, as that isn't vital information."

"Careful," said Beau. "I might start to develop trust issues."

"Trust issues? In Westopolis?" Lara chuckled. "I'd be surprised if you didn't have those already."

Nack smirked, but then shook his head. "Not that I'm not enjoying this, but we really should focus on the task at hand."

"Ah, right. The plan," said Martin. "The plan to go to Green Hill and stage a prison break."

"How do we do that, exactly?" Manuel asked.

The purple weasel smiled. "You're looking at the motherfucking god of breaking out of jail. I know how that system works. It's all a matter of timing."

"So, what do we do?" asked Beau.

"You, my slithery companion, are a key part of this," Nack said. "In fact, all of you will be able to get away with going to Green Hill, but myself and my henchmen won't be able to go, considering the fact that we ran all of the way out here to get away from there." He then walked over, gathering the others around him. "I need all of you to play a role in it. Lara, you and Manuel are going to play a couple going on vacation there."

"I'll get some fake IDs set up for you," Martin added. "Your names are the same, since they're not in any major criminal database, but you're both from the lovely and peaceful Star Light City."

"See?" Nack smiled. "And you guys all doubted me bringing in a dirty cop."

"Every dirty cop has at least one clean spot," Beau spat.

"What happened to you liking me earlier?" Martin grinned.

"The more that you talk, the more that feeling dwindles," the snake said.

"Whoa, gentlemen," Nack said, calming the two down and getting between them. "I've said before that I don't want any infighting during a deal."

"A deal?" asked Lara. "If this is supposed to be a deal, then where's our money?"

"You'll get it transferred into your accounts," Nack said, turning to Martin. "All of you will."

"So, where does Beau fit into this?" asked Manuel.

"You ever see those homeless drug addicts on street corners?" Nack asked.

"I pretty much live in the hotbed of that, so... yeah," Beau nodded. "I'm familiar with them."

"Then you know your role already," Nack said.

"Kind of like the first day that he found you," Lara chuckled.

"If y'all are expecting me to wait on some street corner whilst wearing a blanket and begging for a handout, then you'd better ask one of my boys to do it," Beau said. "I'm above that."

"You're really not," said Manuel.

"You're supposed to be the nice one," said the snake.

"And if you want to keep your position," Nack spoke, "then you'll do everything that I ask of you. Do you want your payday or not?"

"All right," Beau said. "But... where does that leave the cop?"

"I've got some forged police uniforms to go to other places," said Martin. "I can just introduce myself as a rookie and come along to help. The best thing about a prison transfer is that it's not usually something major, so I could go to Green Hill as a cop from, say, Aqua Lake, and none of them would bat an eyelid."

"What do we do if we manage to break them out?" asked Manuel.

"We use them to help ship our Fokus across the seas," said Nack. "There's been some halted activity lately at one of our harbours, so we need to expand and push more out."

"We can't rush it, though," Beau said. "No point in pushing too much of something if the person who makes that something doesn't have enough to make it."

"I'll get you the ingredients," said Nack. "Double, actually. If the plan works."

"What about my hardware?" asked Manuel.

"Oh, you're looking to upgrade?" asked Martin.

"Just a little bit," nodded Manuel. "Enough to keep me afloat, at least."

Nack nodded. "Anything for your girls."

The bull smiled a bit. "Thank you."

"Speaking of girls," the purple weasel said, "how are things for you, Lara?"

"Not too bad," said the tigress. "I do need more things related to protection. I don't want things to get spread, be they diseases or rumours. And with my new girls, a lot more people have been paying me more, but also have been having unprotected sex a lot more due to that. I don't want my girls or my clients catching anything bad."

"I'll get you what you need," said Nack. "I might need to reach out to other cities somehow... there's not really a lot of great options for protection in Westopolis."

"I appreciate it," said Lara with a smile.

"Was that the important thing that you wanted to tell me about?" asked Nack.

"Actually, I'd prefer to tell you that in private," Lara said. "Tomorrow, though. It's getting late, and it's nothing that can't wait for one more day."

"Are you sure?"

Lara nodded. "I'm sure."

Nack nodded back. "I'll get there as early as I can to help."

"So, are there any other steps for mine and Lara's role in the plan?" Manuel asked.

"Ah, yes," said Nack. "During the transfer process, whilst the prisoners are still in the vehicle, you are to fake getting in an accident. When the cops take the bait, you keep them distracted."

"What if they catch on?" Martin asked.

"I'm glad that you asked, because you're the fail-safe," Nack answered. "Basically, I need you to get some weapons through to those being transferred across Green Hill. I'll see if my guys can get you a double-layered trunk so that the police won't suspect anything at first glance."

"What about me?" Beau asked. "What do I do?"

"Well, your job is to hand-deliver some Fokus to the escapees," Nack said. "You will have a weapon on you, which you'll keep it concealed underneath that blanket that you mentioned earlier."

"You're just lucky that I still have it," Beau smirked.

"All right, so we all have our parts," said Martin. "Mine could be harder to play..."

"We also need a good way to sneak Beau in," said Lara.

"He'll hitch a ride with you two," said Nack. "In the trunk. Double-layered."

"That's a pretty big order," said Beau.

"Eh, my guys will get to work on it," said Nack. "It's nothing that a few stolen car parts won't fix."

"It's also a long drive from here to Green Hill," said Lara. "Are we sure that Beau won't suffocate?"

"Lady, I've done a lot of drugs in my life," Beau said. "My lungs and internal system have built up an immunity to any kind of suffocation. A long car trip won't be too bad."

The purple weasel chuckled. "All right, that settles it," he said. "Remember, it happens in a few days. Get yourselves sorted out by then, make sure that your schedules are clear, and try to stick to the plan."

"Will do," said Martin.

Nack nodded, turning to the other three. "You guys can sustain yourselves for just a few more days, right?"

"I've got enough Fokus to keep my guys going," Beau nodded. "I'll be good for a bit."

"Same here," Lara said. "No immediate danger to any of my girls thus far."

"And those new guns don't need to be rushed," said Manuel. "I'm a patient guy. My men can wait a bit longer to fight."

"Oh, that reminds me," Beau said, "I owe you about 20 for that last fight."

"Oh, yeah," Manuel smiled, remembering. "Your dude lost." He then turned to Lara. "Sorry about the other night with one of your girls."

"Don't be," Lara smiled. "She enjoyed herself."

Nack chuckled. "It's nice to see that you're all getting along." He then reached his hand out. "To finish the deal, we may as well end it on a good note."

The others nodded, all taking turns to shake the weasel's hand. Martin was the last, and waved the others off as he went to his car, driving back to his department. The others followed suit, bidding their goodbyes to their employer and heading into their own vehicles, driving back to their own places.

"All right," Nack said, walking with his henchmen back to their car. "I need a rush order on those car parts. We can work on sprucing up the rest of them at a different time."

"Will do," said one of his henchmen.

"Music, boss?" asked the other, starting the car up as they all got in.

"First of all, please, just call me Nack," the weasel said. "Secondly, no thank you."

"Do you feel like the others can handle that job?" asked the driver, pulling away from the park.

"I do," said Nack. "There aren't a lot of people in this world that I trust. Those four are lucky to be among that lot, and that makes it six if I include the two of you."

"Won't you have to find another place to cause some ruckus in?" asked the other lackey. "If those freelancers are focused more on Green Hill, they'll get there super quick."

"Yeah," the driver added. "They might try to chase us back up here."

"That's what I'm counting on," Nack grinned. "But... I'm not going to spoil anything else for you two. It's my own little surprise that only I know about." He then tipped his hat down over his head to cover his eyes. "Anyway, let's get back to our own prison. Hopefully, it'll be filled up with a few more convicts before long."

And with that, the rest of the drive back was silent. Nack drifted slowly to sleep, but was unable to wipe the grin from his face. He quickly found a chance to rid himself of those pesky cops from the week before after finding out that they were still alive. Hopefully, they weren't going to be too much of a problem for much longer.

With that thought in mind, he went to sleep, his only regret was not being able to see his plan in action at Green Hill. But he had faith in his associates, and he could only hope that they would play their roles to perfection and deliver.

* * *

 **As of posting this, where I am, it's past midnight on August seventeenth. Technically, that makes it the anniversary of when I first started this story, even though it might read the day before because this site sticks to the United States time-zones. That aside, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I always enjoy writing the Nack parts, and I hope that you all enjoy reading them. I'll see you next time. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	25. How It All Started

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Amy were all sat around the living room table of the freelancers' base, sharing chilli-dogs and playing Cards Against Mobius. It was the first to seven points, and leading so far was Knuckles with four, followed by Amy and Shadow both tied at three, and Tails and Sonic were tied for last with two points each.

It was Amy's turn to read the next card. "The government has funded millions of dollars of research into blank."

The others looked through their cards, picking their choices and shuffling the cards amongst themselves before handing them over to Amy, who began reading them out. "The government has funded millions of dollars of research into... praying the gay away," she giggled. "Hehe... nice one." She picked up the next card. "Research into how the Grinch stole Christmas." The rest chuckled at that, liking the answer. "Research into the... oh, goodness..." She broke into a fit of giggles. "Research into the primal, ball-slapping sex that your parents are having right now..." The others laughed with her, soon calming down, as did Amy. "And finally, the government has funded millions of dollars of research into a box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid." She smiled. "I like the riddle there, but the winner is parents having sex."

"And he extends the lead!" said Knuckles, waiting as Amy gave him the black card.

"I had the praying one," Shadow said.

"I had the riddle thingy," Tails said. "That must leave Sonic with the Grinch one."

"Yeah," Sonic shrugged. "I thought that the reference would work."

"It was a close one," said Amy. "I mean, it's a good movie."

Sonic smiled. "Yeah, it is."

Tails chuckled. "The book is better. Anyway, I'm reading the next one." He grabbed the top black card from the pile. "This is your captain speaking. Fasten your seat-belts and prepare for blank."

The others put their cards in, shuffled them, and handed them to their fluffy friend, who cleared his throat as he began speaking. "This is your captain speaking. Fasten your seat-belts and prepare for sneezing, farting, and coming at the same time," he chuckled. "Good start. Gross, but good. Prepare for an RKO out of nowhere!" He dramatically increased his voice inflection, making himself laugh more. "A memey card, but it works. Prepare for war, huh, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

"Say it again!" Knuckles sang, going along with the song.

Tails then continued. "And last card. Prepare for an ass disaster! Haha!" He literally slapped his own thigh as he laughed at that one. "I feel like that one and the first one could go hand in hand together, but they're both so good." He calmed down and deliberated for a bit before nodding, confirming that he had made his decision. "As much as that last one made me laugh, I've got to go with the war one just for the brief singalong."

"That was me!" Amy said. She turned to Knuckles after getting her card. "I'm catching up to you, red!"

"Well, it's my turn to pick next," said the red echidna, picking up the next black card. "As king, how shall I keep the peasants in line?"

As they all sorted through their cards, Amy spoke. "I've been meaning to ask, but where did you guys get your start?"

"Eh, you kind of know the story already," said Sonic.

"No, not as cops," Amy clarified. "Like, where are you guys from?"

"Well, I was born and raised in Green Hill," said Sonic. "Everything that I've ever done I've done here, pretty much. I try to split my time between living here and with my family." He pulled out his phone and showed Amy a picture from his phone of himself and his siblings and parents. "The green one there is Manic, my brother. The purple hedgehog is my sister, Sonia. The older version of her is our mum, named Aleena. And lastly is... well, the taller, more handsome version of me."

"Jules..." said Tails, his voice as calm as Sonic's.

"What happened to him?" Amy asked.

"Car crash," said Sonic. "He was driving back home after a vacation. But it was a stormy night, and lightning struck and distracted him..." He took another breath. "The other driver was stone cold sober, but he got distracted and couldn't keep his eyes on the road. He survived, but my dad didn't..."

"How old were you when he passed away?" Amy asked.

"5," Sonic said. "I... I don't like to talk about it much." He cleared his throat. "So, yeah. I was born here in Green Hill, and I'm glad to be a part of the forces that defend the city."

The pink hedgehog nodded, then turning to Tails. "What about you?"

"Mine's a bit more clunky in terms of where I'm from," the yellow fox said. "I was born in Mystic Ruins City, but raised between there and Scrap Metal City because my parents had workshops in both places. After they got one in Green Hill, they decided to make it their main shop, and I've been here ever since."

"How are they, by the way?" Knuckles asked. "It's been a while."

"Eh, they're fine," Tails smiled. "I'll be sure to give them a phone call later."

Amy smiled, looking to Knuckles. "What about you?"

"I'm actually from a far-off place," the red echidna said. "I was born on Angel Wing City. Usually, that place is pretty isolated, but my parents raised me right. But then... oh, but then..."

Amy looked confused, then nodded. "Oh... I know what you mean..."

"That's why there are so few echidnas left in the world," Knuckles explained. "Ever since that damn culling, I lost so many family and friends. Myself and Shade are two of the only surviving echidnas that I know about." He then paused for a brief moment. "Oh, and that girl from our first night as cops. Julie-something."

"Julie-Su?" Tails offered.

"Ah, yeah," Knuckles nodded. "That's her."

"I have some in my class," said Amy. "They know a bit of what it's like, but they're fine regardless."

"Didn't you have a bad brush too, Tails?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, for a little while," the yellow fox confirmed. "Because of my tails, I got bullied a lot. I didn't really have any friends. I know that bullying isn't much compared to losing a parent or most of your own species, but..."

"Pain is still pain," said Knuckles. "Doesn't matter what the scale of it is."

Tails nodded. "Besides that, the worst thing to happen to me was my dad having a heart attack when I was little. Didn't really help the whole bullying thing."

"I'm so sorry..." Amy said, gently taking the fox's hand into her own.

"Actually, it turned out to be some sort of blessing in disguise," Tails said. "The operation that they performed to help him out was expensive, but it was a success. It actually became a prototype for the implants that we use today."

"Did they put anything in your dad to help his heart?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, but just to help him to get back on his feet," Tails answered. "It wasn't a hassle to remove it when it was over with, and he's been doing fine ever since."

"That's cool," Amy smiled.

"Thanks," Tails smiled back.

Amy then looked over to Shadow. "That just leaves you. What's your story?"

"I... I don't have a big one," Shadow admitted. "I honestly can't recall where I was born. I think that it might have been Green Hill, since I have the most memories here. I never found out about my family, and I jumped from place to place, hoping for some family to take me in. Most human families didn't want to associate with a Mobian, and no Mobian families wanted me because they thought that I'd be a bad omen."

"That must have been horrible for you," Amy said.

"It was, until I met Maria," Shadow said.

"She really changed everything for you, didn't she?" Sonic smiled.

"Yeah..." the black and red hedgehog admitted. "Anyway, my first family that I can remember was with her. Since she was adopted too, we got along well together. Her foster mother was a lovely woman, but the father... not so much. One night of too many drinks, and he hit Maria. That was pretty much it for us, and we left not long after that."

"Maria was adopted too?" asked Amy.

"Yeah," Shadow said. "Her real parents died when she was very young. At least she knew hers..."

Amy nodded a bit before speaking again. "Did you look for another foster home?"

"No," Shadow said. "We looked after ourselves. We didn't get the chance to shower or change clothes, and we stole food only when we needed to. We took money on occasion, but not as much as we did with food. We hopped around the streets of Green Hill with different families of homeless Mobians who took us in."

"And then what happened?" asked Amy.

"Well, when we hit our teen years, things started changing. Me and Maria started hanging around each other a bit less, but we were still close." He sighed. "That's when... well, that's when Rouge joined the frame."

"Rouge?" Amy said. "That name is familiar..."

"She works at the Emerald Gem," Sonic explained. "We saved you guys there at the same time."

"Mobian bat? White? Incredibly gorgeous?" Amy asked.

"That's her," Sonic said.

"So, what happened with her?"

"That's when things started to get worse," Shadow said. "I hanged around with Rouge more, and we were kind of... attached. I started stealing more because of her, I dabbled with drinking, I got into fights all the time... and it all ended when I fought a police officer."

"Why'd you go and do that?" Amy giggled.

Shadow couldn't hide his smile. "To be honest, he was being a super huge douche-bag to Rouge, so I fought him off her." He smiled more. "After that incident, I heard about Green Hill Academy and went to sign up. They almost didn't take me, but I passed the entrance exams, and I put all of my focus into wanting to help people. I lost touch with Rouge, and barely kept it with Maria, but I made it through."

"So, are you and Maria... together?" Amy asked.

Shadow choked a bit and cleared his throat. "Um... n-no." He calmed himself, trying not to stutter again. "I mean, I love her, and she knows that. She loves me too. But we're not together together, you know? We live together, and we protect each other, but she knows about my job and about what being a freelance agent entails, so."

"You're forgetting to mention someone important..." Sonic said under his breath.

Shadow chuckled. "Ah, yes. The man who helped me get into the academy in the first place."

"You're damn right I did," Sonic winked.

"Don't take this out of context, but why did you help him?" Amy asked. "Did you know about what he'd done beforehand?"

"I'd read some reports in the papers," Sonic admitted. "Even then, he didn't seem like a bad dude. He just had a shitty hand dealt to him, and now he's making the most of it. The academy almost rejected him before I stepped in and convinced the officer running said exam to change his mind."

"What about you two?" Amy asked Tails and Knuckles.

"Eh, we offered to help him a lot," said Tails, "but he wanted to try and focus on it all on his own. Which was hard to do, considering that he shared a room with me at the academy."

"Yeah," Knuckles grinned. "He shared a room with the smartest person at this table - who offered him help at every turn - and Shadow kept saying no."

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" Shadow smiled. "I mean, I made it through."

"On your own terms," Amy smiled. "Not bad."

"So, what brought about that question?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I get the feeling that I'm going to be running into you guys quite a bit," she shrugged. "And considering that I'm dating one of you, it'd be easy to ask you now before the magic dies."

"We've only had one kiss, though," Sonic chuckled.

"And I really liked that kiss," Amy blushed. "I'd like to do it again sometime."

"Not in front of us," said Knuckles. "That'd just be icky."

The blue hedgehog laughed before speaking. "I figure that you owe us one."

"Owe you one how?" Amy asked.

"For the question," Tails surmised. "We've told you all about us, so it's only fair that you do the same."

The pink hedgehog nodded. "I guess I do owe you. All right, well, Sonic knows about my heart condition. But the rest of you don't, so let's start there." The others chuckled at that before she continued. "Well, I was born with it, but it's confusing. Me and Rosy were completely fine during our mum's pregnancy. She didn't drink, smoke, or do anything bad. Rosy turned out fine, but I was born with heart problems." She hanged her head. "I... I almost didn't make it..."

Sonic put his hand on Amy's. "It's okay."

Amy nodded and sniffled a bit, but cleared her throat and carried on. "Our parents did their best when we were born to ensure that we were okay, and they've done a pretty good job. They still help us today, even though me and Rosy live together."

"Where are you two from?" asked Knuckles.

"Green Hill," Amy said. "But our parents live on the western side of the city, and we live nearer the centre. It makes getting to my job a pain in the ass, though, since that's also on the western side of the city."

"When did you move?" asked Tails.

"About four years ago," said Amy. "Me and Rosy hadn't long finished high-school, and balancing college with a decent job was hard at first. Luckily, during that time, the governing bodies that be realised that student loans are total bullshit, and then me and Rosy got our jobs."

"What made you want to be a teacher?" asked Shadow.

"Well, I'd always liked going to school," Amy shrugged.

"Nerd!" Tails called. "I mean, it's okay if I say it, right?"

"You're good," Amy said with a smile, sharing a high-five with the fox. "Anyway, I'd always been interested in teaching, but mostly teaching kids. For one thing, it's easy to teach kindergarten. But for another, I just really like working with kids. They're always so happy and full of interest and the will to learn. They don't have to deal with the harsher environments of high school and such. Even college can be kind of evil."

"I think that you should at least tell them about that part," Sonic shrugged. "That way, they're more prepared for when they get to college."

"I don't know if any of them will get there, but I have faith in them," Amy said. "That one kid who keeps trying to eat the glue is surprisingly good at basic maths."

"He should stick to it," Knuckles said.

Sonic sighed. "Really, dude?"

"I couldn't help it," Knuckles shrugged.

"I think that you could have," said Tails. "You just chose not to."

"Yeah, that," the red echidna smirked. "Let's go with that instead."

"Anyway," Amy said, still laughing a bit, "I love doing what I do. I love helping kids get prepared for the world, even though I'm not preparing them for anything major."

"What about Rosy?" Tails asked. "How'd she become a bartender?"

"Well, it was her part-time job during our college years," Amy said. "But she grew to actually like it and got pretty good at it. She has a good memory of people and their orders, but being a normal waitress isn't her style."

"So, serving them stuff that destroys their liver is more her speed?" Sonic chuckled. "She definitely is a party girl type."

"Actually, she kind of is but kind of isn't," Amy said. "She's not great at keeping a guy around for long, but at the same time she doesn't go out every weekend and get drunk off her rocker. In fact, she only really drinks at work because they allow her, and that's only during breaks. Even then, she doesn't do it that much unless it's for stress relief on behalf of a douchey customer."

"Oh, yeah," Tails said. "We know the type."

"She told me about that," Amy nodded. "You guys almost got into a fight with those jocks, right?"

"They weren't even jocks," said Sonic. "They were just roided up Mobians looking for a drink, or a fight."

"I would have given them both," Knuckles said. "Give them a beer, then give them a blast upside their head with a punch."

"One-Punch Echidna strikes again," said Tails.

"Hell, you never know," Knuckles shrugged. "With these implants and such, it could very well only take one punch."

"Let's let Rosy handle keeping her bar in one piece," Amy smiled. "She has that shotgun for a reason."

"She's good at her job," said Sonic. "Good memory, friendly enough, and she gets extra tips due to her fantastic personality."

"You're avoiding the obvious," said Amy.

"Only because I don't want the magic to die so early for us," Sonic winked.

"Touche," Amy giggled.

The radio then stopped playing the songs. "That's my cue," Knuckles said, standing up. "Any requests?"

"Let's let Amy choose," Sonic said, turning to the pink hedgehog.

"Oh, that last album is over?" Amy smiled. "Well, I chose last time. I say that Knuckles picks."

"Eh, something easier than Amy's choice," said the red echidna. "Let's say... some Hit The Lights, perhaps?"

"Can we get away with it at this time?" Tails asked.

"Eh, we've got a couple of hours until midnight," said Sonic. "Come on, let's get back to the game." The oven dinged again. "Ooh, more chilli-dogs!"

Shadow smirked as he stood up. "I'll set the music up."

"What were the scores again?" Knuckles asked.

"You at five, Amy at four, Shadow at three, and me and Sonic with two each," Tails said.

"I'm in the lead!" Knuckles smiled.

"You won't keep it," said Amy. "I'm coming for you."

"Bring it on, sister."

Sonic soon came back with chilli-dogs, and Shadow pressed play on the radio before both hedgehogs rejoined the table. "Who's the next card czar?" Sonic asked.

"Knuckles," said Tails.

"Aw... that's me out of a point," Knuckles said, picking the next card up. "As king, how shall I keep the peasants in line?"

The others sorted through their cards, shuffling them before handing them to Knuckles, who gave them another shuffle. "As king, how shall I keep the peasants in line? Ass to mouth." He snorted. "All right, that's a good way. I shall keep the peasants in line by smoking crack, for instance." He chuckled and then kept reading. "I shall keep the peasants in line by slapping a racist old lady!" He laughed loudly at that one. "I don't know why I like that one, but it's good." He moved on to the last card. "As king, I shall keep the peasants in line by letting everyone down!" He laughed harder than he did at the previous one. "That one wins!"

"Boom!" Amy said. "The newcomer ties the lead!"

"That's like the third point that I've given you too," Knuckles noted, handing her the black card.

"Mine was smoking crack," Tails said.

"I had the racist old lady," Shadow admitted.

"Mine was ass to mouth," Sonic shrugged. "I didn't have much that worked for that round."

"All right, I'm next," said Shadow, picking the next black card up. "Ooh, this is a good one. The blind date was going horribly until we discovered our shared interest in blank." He waited as the others sorted their cards, and he shuffled them as well, before picking the first one up and reading it. "The date was going horrible until we discovered our shared interest in making the penises kiss," he chuckled. "Great start. Our shared interest in a Japanese toaster that you can fuck." He laughed a bit more at that one. "Oh, that's so good. Our shared interest in Greek philosophy, mostly their philosophies towards sexual intercourse." He smirked at that one. "Whoever wrote that one in did well. And lastly, it was going horrible until we discovered our shared interest in almost giving money to a homeless person!" He laughed loudly. "Oh, god! That's so cruel, but so brilliant at the same time! It wins!"

"And another one for me!" Amy said.

"Ooh, damn," Sonic said. "I could very well pick the winner here." He cleared his throat and grabbed the next black card, unable to hide a chuckle. "What's making things awkward in the sauna?" The others sorted their cards, shuffled, then Sonic shuffled them again. "What's making things awkward in the sauna? My raging boner that is literally raging to the point of growing arms and punching people!" He laughed loudly. "I know that's a write-in, but it's so absurd that I can't help but love it. Let's see... getting drive-by shot is making things awkward," he nodded. "I can see how. The tiger that... oh, fuck! Haha! The tiger that killed my father!" He snorted. "That's dark, but great!" He managed to calm himself down, but got to the next one. "And simple, ambiguous sarcasm is making things awkward in the sauna. It's the tiger that killed my father. It has to be."

"Yes!" Amy exclaimed.

"Fuck!" Knuckles yelled. "Mine was the raging boner! I thought that was so good!"

"Drive-by was mine," said Shadow.

"I had the sarcasm," Tails shrugged.

Sonic smiled and handed Amy the black card. "And you're the winner. Also the first female participant and winner that we've had."

"Nobody wanted to play before?" Amy asked.

"Nah," Tails said. "A lot of people were busier at the academy. We got to play with some of them, but most games were just us for. The nights we stayed up keeping the others awake with our laughter drove people crazy."

The pink hedgehog giggled, turning to Sonic. "Sorry if that last card was a bit near the knuckle considering what you said earlier."

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "Eh, I wasn't thinking about my own father, to be fair. I know that you weren't implying that anyway. It was just a good card."

"It was favouritism, and you know it..." Knuckles grumbled.

"Does somebody want some chilli-dogs with all that salt?" Tails asked.

"Well, you all know that the loser packs up," Knuckles said. "And you and Sonic were tied for last."

"Shit," Sonic said, turning to Tails and raising a fist. Tails did the same, and they slammed their fists down onto their hands three times. "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Tails had paper, and Sonic had rock, so the blue hedgehog grunted. "Double shit."

"We didn't have the pack away rule the last time that we played," Shadow pointed out.

"Well, I'm owed some payback after getting screwed on that last round," Knuckles said.

"How about a couple of drinks at the Midnight Oil too?" asked Amy. "My treat for you guys letting me hang with you."

"Sounds good," said Sonic, still packing things away.

"Here, I'll help," Amy said.

"But you won the game," Sonic said. "I don't mind doing this."

"Champion's privilege," Amy grinned.

"Oh, well, when you put it that way," Sonic smirked. He and Amy made quick work of packing the games up, and Sonic took them into the living room, placing them in their usual spot on one of the shelves on the TV stand.

Meanwhile, the others were grabbing some hoodies and such to put on, as it was likely to be cold at this time of night. Knuckles handed Sonic a dark grey zip-up hoodie as he made it back to them from the living room, slipping it on.

"Let's get going," said Sonic.

The others nodded, all leaving and hopping into Knuckles' car. The red echidna started it up, pulling out of the driveway and the alley combined with it before they all made their way to their destination.

"No music?" Tails asked.

"Nah," Knuckles said. "We've listened to enough already. We need to chill out a bit, I think."

"I was going to say," Shadow said. "That explains why you turned off the radio when we finished that game."

"Did you at least put the remaining chilli-dogs in the microwave?" Sonic asked.

"In the trash," Knuckles admitted. "No point in having those for breakfast, as good as they are."

"Wow," Sonic said. "That win must have hurt more than I thought."

"It wasn't that bad," Knuckles smirked. "Not much longer to go. Traffic's pretty light tonight."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Sonic nodded. "The last time we drove up there was when we were back at Green Hill still. Our new base is further away, but this drive just felt kinda faster."

"Technically," said Tails, "we'd cleared our desks already by that point. You were the last one picked up from your home." He then shrugged. "I do agree that this drive isn't as long as I thought that it'd be, though."

"I guess that I live farther away than I thought," Sonic said. "I might permanently move in to the new base just to make it easier."

"It would make it easier to find you if I need you," said Amy, blushing. "Sorry... that makes me sound a bit like a stalker..."

Sonic turned to her and kissed her cheek. "Don't be sorry," he smiled. "It was cute. Like you."

"You're cute too," Amy grinned.

"Am I cute?" Tails asked.

"You're the cutest one in this car," Amy smiled, reaching to playfully ruffle the yellow fox's head.

Knuckles and Shadow smirked at the goings on before finally reaching the bar in question. The red echidna parked his car, and they all went to the entrance, seeing the same lion from last time, who nodded at seeing Amy.

"Good to see you," he smiled at her.

"Riley," Amy smiled. "It's been a while."

"You don't come up here often enough," the lion smiled. "Go on in."

The others stepped forward, but Riley stopped Sonic. "You need to see my ID again?"

"I just want to look at your new cards," the lion admitted.

Sonic grinned, showing his new card off. "Like it?"

"Ooh... yeah, it's a lot cooler than the police ones," Riley admitted. "Go on in now. And have some fun."

"Will do," the blue hedgehog nodded.

They all got to walk in this time, as Knuckles stopped to share a fist bump with the bouncer, and they all headed to a booth near the back of the bar. As they sat down, a familiar face walked over to them, and Sonic shook his head.

"Oh, look," the blue hedgehog began, seeing the zebra from the other night come over, wearing a dark red tank top, black cargo shorts, and white trainers. "It's the Archduke of Douche-Baggery."

"If you'd give me a second," the zebra said, "I wanted to apologise for the other night. I was drunk and angry about what your echidna friend did."

"Are you sure that this is out of the goodness of your own heart and not just because the barkeep threatened to blow your head off?" Sonic asked.

The zebra looked confused. "You sure that's the barkeep? Because the lady sat with you guys is even more beautiful."

"We're twin sisters, so we're kind of equally beautiful," Amy said.

"And what does the non-violent twin do for a living?"

"She's a teacher," Sonic said. "Maybe you should sign up for her class."

"What kind of teacher?" The zebra smiled. "Yoga? I love a woman that can stretch."

"Four your infomration, I teach kindergarten," Amy said. "My boyfriend is right, actually; you'd pass with flying colours. Want to start, let's say, the beginning of next week?"

The zebra grew angry now. "I didn't come out here to be insulted."

"No," Shadow said. "But you came here feigning innocence in an attempt to get friendly with the only sat at this table because she looks like the girl behind the bar, and even after both have said no, you still don't get the fucking hint."

"You'd better apologise for that, you emo shit-bag," the zebra threatened.

"Didn't we already apologise enough for the spilled drinks thing?" Knuckles asked. "Because I'm so done with that, personally. Get over it, dude."

"You know, all you pigs are the same," the zebra said.

"Dude, you got a name?" Tails asked.

"J-Joel," he slurred.

"Well, Joel, we have some good news and some bad news," the fox said. "The good news is, we're not cops any more!"

"And what's the bad news?" Joel asked.

"The bad news, for you at least," Sonic added, playing along, "is that we're no freelance bounty hunters. And your very own name popped up on our list."

"B-But I've never hurt anybody..." Joel said.

"No, but you have been harassing this humble establishment for quite some time now," said Knuckles. "There's been rumours spreading about you making sexual advances on girls, usually with your cronies to back you up."

"Well, they're not here tonight," said Joel.

"Good thinking," said Shadow. "Fewer bodies for the ambulance to pick up later."

"Ah, there's no need," said the zebra. "I'll show myself out."

"Seriously?" asked Sonic. "My friend here just threatened to knock you unconscious, and you're going to back away?"

"I'm drunk," said Joel. "It wouldn't be a fair fight."

"You want to talk about fair fights?" Tails scoffed. "Someone as tall and built as you who makes advances on women less than twice your size wants to talk about the concept of fairness? That's rich. Almost as rich as you are, I assume."

"I'm not rich..." Joel complained. "I used to be..."

"Papa cut you off?" Tails asked. "Too much going to bars and hitting on girls?"

"Wait a minute..." said Amy. "I... I think I know about you..."

"Oh?" The zebra smiled. "What have you heard?"

"Well, besides the pompous ass-hole part, you're a trust fund kid," said Amy. "You've got money, and connections. And boy, do you squander both of those things."

"Where did you hear this?"

"Read up on it the other day, thanks to my sister," Amy smiled. "She keeps reports on all of her patrons, and that includes you."

"So, we've got the richest shit-head in Green Hill sat with us?" Sonic smiled. "It's a privilege and an honour, sir."

"I'm not from Green Hill originally," Joel slurred. "Oh... fuck..."

"He told us something he shouldn't have," Tails sang.

"Details," Sonic demanded. "Now."

"I only drive up here late at night with my buddies to get away from Star Light," said Joel.

"Why Star Light?" Tails asked. "It's a nice city with a low crime rate."

"Not enough good places there," said Joel. "I like the drive up here. Usually it's with my buddies."

"You do know that you're already in enough trouble, right?" Sonic said. "By telling us this, you could be in even more."

"Come on," Joel complained, suddenly standing up straight. "You can't do that to me, man! You fucking pigs are all the same, you know that?"

"Well, it depends," said Knuckles. "Do you want to keep your life and your money, or do you want to be in jail for all of the horrendous shit that you've been pulling because of your status?"

"You... you can't do that!"

"We won't," said Shadow. "You just have to promise us that you won't go around bars and approaching ladies who don't want to be approached."

Joel scoffed. "What's next? Are you going to expose my illegal gambling too?"

Sonic chuckled. "You need a hand out of that hole that you're stuck in, by any chance?"

"Shit..." Joel put his head in his hands. "You can't tell anyone. Please... don't arrest me..."

"We're freelancers," said Shadow. "We could very well kill you right now and nobody would give a shit."

"But... m-my buddies..."

"I'm assuming that they're in the back?" Sonic asked. Joel nodded, and Sonic sighed. "Well, there's only one thing to do," he said, pulling out his phone. "Hello, 911?"

"I'll stop it!" Joel cried out. "Please... don't... don't do it... I'll change my ways..."

"I still think that you need some form of repentance," said Shadow, turning to the bar. "Rosy!"

The pink hedgehog in question, wearing a black blouse, white skinny jeans, and pink flats came on over. "What's this prick doing here?" she asked, hooking a thumb to Joel.

"He's in very serious trouble," said Knuckles. "And we thought that it'd be best if you repay him for all the shit that he's been causing lately."

Rosy nodded, and got Joel to stand up. Rosy then reared a hand back, slapping the zebra right across the face. Instead of getting angry, the white and black mammal nodded, rubbing his cheek as he spoke.

"I... I deserved that..." he said, feeling that his lip had split. "Damn... you pack a mean right hand..."

"I also pack a mean right punt," Rosy said.

"What- OW!" Joel yelled, feeling said punt hit him square in the nuts, he keeled over, falling on his knees.

"Learned your lesson?" Rosy asked.

"Y-Yeah..." Joel nodded weekly.

"Good," Rosy replied, turning to the table. "Hey, guys."

"Hi," the others replied as Joel went to grab his buddies.

"So, what was that all about?" the pink hedgehog barkeep asked.

"Oh, just giving that dick-bag the special treatment that he always deserved," Sonic grinned.

"Sounds fair," Rosy nodded. "Can I get you anything?"

"Five cokes," said Sonic.

"Ahem," Amy cleared her throat.

"Oh, right. Sorry," the blue hedgehog said sheepishly. "Four cokes and some orange juice for the lady."

"And for food? We've got some desserts. Not the best in the world, but they'll perk you right up," Rosy smiled.

"What do you recommend?" Knuckles asked.

"That I get paid so that I get to keep my job," Rosy winked. "As for the honest answer, we've got some raspberry cheesecake."

The five sat down looked at each other, and nodded their approval. Rosy smiled and went back over to the bar, calling out to the kitchen to prepare the dessert as she went about fixing up their drinks.

"So," Amy said, "you weren't really going to call the police on that guy were you?"

Sonic showed his phone to Amy, revealing that he had typed in the number, but didn't dial. "Nah. Young kid like him would get eaten alive in jail."

"It's not that he's too pretty for it," Knuckles smirked. "It's that he's just pretty enough."

"Good thing that we didn't actually call the police," said Tails. "We can get away with that, but that might go against the rule of running our own stuff."

"Yeah, true," Sonic nodded. "But he didn't need to know that."

Rosy then reappeared and handed them each a couple of slices of raspberry cheesecake, along with a metal jug. "Got some custard in there if you so desire it," she said, handing them their drinks.

"Thanks," said Shadow.

Rosy nodded and smiled before leaving them be, and Tails spoke first. "I'm glad that the nights are quieter than the days," he said.

"Not to sound lazy, but I agree," said Knuckles. "It's a bit easier to sleep knowing that the actual forces have stuff handled these days."

"They only need us if it's super important or if they're low on backup," said Sonic. "It's all a big plus, really."

"Seems like you guys really like your job," Amy smiled. "I can appreciate that."

"You really like teaching kids that much, huh?" asked Sonic.

"I love it," Amy gushed. "I know that I said it earlier, but they're so adorable. I love watching them learn and getting to learn with them."

"Where'd you get your degree?" Tails asked.

"I started at Green Hill University not long after me and my family moved up in the city," said Amy. "I took mostly sociology courses to help me learn how to deal with people, and then when I graduated I managed to get a full-time job, since those courses as well as the part-time training helped me out a lot into actually getting a job as a teacher."

"Where did you guys go to college?" asked Shadow. "Since I didn't go, what was it like for you?"

"Oh, we all dropped out of high school to join up with the police academy," said Sonic. "Well, Tails did, at least. He was too smart for them."

"True," Knuckles said. "Me and Sonic had to work a bit harder, but we made it out of the hell that is high school."

"Were you in the same classes?" Amy asked.

"Different ages," said Sonic. "Usually equals going to different classes."

"Me and Sonic are the closest in age," said Knuckles. "But even then, we were still mostly in separate classes. We didn't interact that much."

"Then we got into the academy, and that was that," said Sonic.

"What did you do for that time, Tails?" Amy asked.

"Oh, I stayed at home mostly," the yellow fox answered. "I worked from there with my parents at their parts shop. I got offered a chance to join up for the academy. In fact, I'm the only one who was offered, since they noticed my intelligence."

"So, the others signed up freely?" Amy smiled. "You actually got the offer from the teachers at the academy?"

Tails blushed. "Not to brag, but... yeah." He cleared his throat. "My parents were hesitant at first, but they came around."

"Did you get bullied much at the academy?" Amy asked.

"I kinda started learning to fight by that point," Tails said. "I prefer to read a book, but I can take care of myself."

"We did offer to help him if he got picked on," Shadow said. "But he declined."

"Payback for you not taking my help with tests," Tails chuckled. "We all did our own thing, but we did become friends along the way, and when we all graduated, I was so happy."

Amy smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."

Sonic smiled, and took a swig of his drink before getting a phone call, seeing that it was from Avery. He answered it. "Hello?"

"Sonic!" Avery smiled. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Sonic said, putting his phone on speaker mode. "I'm here at the Midnight Oil with the others. Say hi, everyone!"

"Hi, everyone!" Avery repeated.

"So, what's the call about, boss?" Shadow asked.

"I asked you not to call me boss any more."

"Sorry, boss."

Avery shook his head on his end. "This is actually pretty important. We're having a prison transfer soon, and I want you guys to help oversee it. Make sure that nothing goes too awry."

"You're calling us for backup ahead of time?" Tails asked. "This must be serious."

"It is," said Avery. "So, can you?"

"A paycheck's a paycheck," Sonic joked. "Count us in."

"When is it?" asked Shadow.

"In a few days," Avery replied. "Friday, to be exact. I'll see you all then."

"Later," Sonic said as they both hanged up.

"Prison transfer, huh?" Amy smiled. "Not bad for freelance rookies."

"I almost want to take offence to that," Sonic winked. "Come on, let's finish up. We should get some sleep soon."

"Oh, I wanted to ask..." Amy trailed off, blushing.

"Wanted to ask what?" Sonic said.

"Could I stay overnight with you guys?" Amy asked. "I'll sleep in Sonic's room with him. I mean, not sleep with him. Not that I don't... oh, boy..."

Sonic leaned over and kissed her cheek to calm her down, which worked. "There's no code against that, so... yes. You can sleep at our place tonight."

"Who made you the leader?" Knuckles asked.

"Avery did when we were still cops," Sonic replied. "I figured that it still carries on to us being free agents now."

Knuckles paused. "Well, I wasn't expecting that one."

The others laughed and continued eating their food, even adding some custard to their desserts. Along the way, Amy took her heart medication for the evening, and soon, they'd put any trash away, with Amy stopping by the bar whilst the others waited by the entrance.

"I'm staying over their place tonight," Amy said.

"Going to finally get laid with blue boy?" Rosy smirked.

Amy playfully hit her sister's arm, but couldn't help her blush. "Yeah, don't wait up for me. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Later," Rosy replied, reaching to hug her younger sister, who hugged back.

The hug broke, and Amy waved goodbye to her older sister before leaving with the other four. They got to Knuckles' car, and wasted no time in pulling out of the parking lot and driving back to the new headquarters.

They pulled up to the front entrance of their place and got inside, letting Amy in also. They didn't turn many lights on, electing to simply go upstairs and head straight to bed. Luckily, the beds and rooms were large enough to hold two people, so Amy getting into bed wouldn't be a problem. Well, not a big one...

"I... um... I don't have a change of clothes," Amy blushed.

"I don't mind turned around and waiting," Sonic smiled. "It's no issue."

"You can look," Amy giggled, starting to undress to her underwear. Sonic followed suit, and then climbed into the bed, with his pink hedgehog counterpart following suit.

"Is there a rule against sex in the new place?" Amy blushed.

"Not that I know of," Sonic smiled. "But to help the others sleep, maybe we shouldn't do that."

"Kisses, then?"

"Kisses will do," Sonic acquiesced playfully.

The two smiled and shared a kiss, sharing some passion with each other as well but keeping their moaning to a minimum. Then Amy climbed on top of Sonic, grinding a bit against him, but he put his hands on her hips.

"I'd love to..." he said. "Believe me, I really would..."

"I know," Amy nodded, moving back down to lay next to Sonic. "Me too."

Sonic hugged her close and kissed her softly before breaking it. "Goodnight, my sweet Rose..."

"That was cheesy..." the pink hedgehog giggled. "Goodnight, my handsome blue boyfriend..."

"I guess that makes it official, my beautiful pink girlfriend," Sonic smiled.

They both shared a final chuckle before yawning and going to sleep, Amy curled up on Sonic's chest and purring as she snored. Sonic took note of this, smiling at how adorable this pink hedgehog beauty was, before caving in to his own tiredness and falling asleep as well.

* * *

 **And another chapter is finished! Also, there was a mistake that I made in the last chapter, but I fixed it, so yay. Also also, I hope that you enjoyed this one! It was a more comedic chapter, and balanced with a bit of backstory which I hope wasn't too confusing even though this was kind of more of a filler chapter. But I still had fun writing it, and I hope that you did too. I'll see you all next time. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	26. Gaining Ground

Nack woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. He didn't hesitate to turn it off immediately, knowing that he had a promise to upkeep today. He got out of his bed and headed to the shower, stripping off and getting under the warm stream of water.

He cleaned himself without much issue and turned to leave, putting on a new suit. He settled on a purple and black number, going for a purple dress shirt, a dark grey vest shirt over that, a black and silver striped tie, dark purple dress slacks, black shoes, and a black blazer. Finally, his signature hat topped off the look.

He walked out to his main office, seeing his two henchmen stood there. "You two ready to get this business with Lara sorted?"

They nodded as one spoke. "What do you think that business could be?"

"Like she said, it's serious, but not urgent," said Nack. "Could be anything. Let's go."

The two henchmen nodded, and they all left for the small garage that was part of the prison. They looked around for their usual car, and found it, smiling at the other vehicles and the work that had been done on them so far.

"It's all coming up rather well for the other cars here," said Nack. "Won't be much longer, and we can put them to full use."

"What about the one that we normally use?" asked one of the henchmen.

"We just use that to get from place to place. Just because we stole the damn thing doesn't mean that we have to use it to parade filth around Westopolis," Nack said.

"Right. Good thinking."

Nack smirked and got into the back of his car as the other two joined him, one driving and the other in the shotgun seat. They left the garage, heading out for Lara's brothel, with Nack thinking of what the problem could possibly be.

After a long enough drive, they'd made it there, with Nack knocking on the entrance door of the brothel. Sure enough, Lara was the one to answer it, letting the purple weasel in with a smile.

"So glad that you could make it," Lara said, her deep red blouse and dark pink skirt mixing well. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Is that a euphemism or are you offering me food?" Nack winked.

"The latter," Lara smiled, turning to the henchmen. "You two?"

"We're fine, thank you," one of them said.

"Well, I can't let you go back with an empty stomach. A small snack, perhaps?" she offered.

Nack turned. "She won't stop asking if you don't accept."

"We will," smiled the other henchman. "Thank you."

Lara nodded, turning to one of her girls to get some food before leading Nack and the others to the kitchen. In there were several employees, some with customers, others without. They were either sharing food or eating on their own, with some of the girls even delivering around the various tables.

"Very professional in here," Nack smiled. "I never got to see this part last time."

"Well, we had more important matters to attend to," Lara smiled, leading them to a table. "Please, sit."

They did, with Nack sitting across from Lara, and his henchmen sat on either side of the table. Nack ordered himself some toast with jam, and Lara had the same, ordering everyone present a cup of coffee as well as the two henchmen ordered some simple cheese sandwiches as something light.

"So, what is the issue with the girl that you mentioned?" Nack asked. He then realised that she wanted to tell him in private, but smiled reassuringly. "Whatever you need to say, you can say in front of these two as well."

Lara nodded, snapping her fingers. One of the girls sat alone at a table, being a Mobian cat with dark blue fur. She wore a bright frilly pink nightgown and came over to the table. Nack then noticed something else about her; a red scarf with a black butterfly design.

The girl hesitated a bit, but Lara turned to her and smiled. "It's okay, you can show him. He won't hurt you."

The girl nodded, taking off her scarf and showing some light bruising on there. Nack was about to speak, but then the girl shook off her gown, showing herself in black and red lingerie, also showing off some more bruises on her stomach, legs, and arms.

"What happened to her?" Nack asked.

"Multiple men wanted a turn with her," Lara said. "I told them to wait, but they didn't."

"Did they at least pay?" Nack asked.

"They did," said Lara. "That's why nobody stopped them."

The girl whimpered a bit. "P-Please... don't... don't t-tell anybody..."

Lara stood up and hugged her girl, who hugged back. "It'll be fine... it's okay..."

"B-But... I... I just remembered..."

Nack grew curious at this. "What did you remember?"

The girl sobbed a bit more, but Lara kissed her on the cheek gently in a gesture of reassurance before the girl spoke. "One of those m-men... was... m-my father..."

The purple weasel gritted his teeth a bit. "Did he know that it was you?"

"She'd just started," Lara said. "Not even a few days in, and she's risen to be one of the best girls that I've ever had. Unfortunately, many people demand that best too often." She then turned back to her girl. "Is this true? Was one of those men really your father?"

"S-Stepfather..." the girl clarified.

"What's your name?" Nack asked.

"L-Lisa..."

"Well, Lisa, would you mind telling me where your stepfather lives?"

"Y-You... you're not going to..."

Nack shook his head. "No, I'm not going to kill him. All things considered, I probably should, but I won't. I'll just give him a warning."

"H-He lives in an apartment complex not too f-far from here..." Lisa said. "And... the o-other men... they were all f-friends of his..."

Nack turned to Lara. "Did you know about this?"

"No," Lara said, turning to Lisa. "You know I love you, but you can't keep things like that from us, okay?"

Lisa nodded. "O-Okay... thank you..."

"You're welcome," Lara smiled, kissing Lisa on the lips softly. "Now, go to your room. You're off for the day, so go and rest. I'll send some people up with you to help you recover."

Lisa smiled "Thank you..." She then turned to Nack. "And thank y-you as well..."

"It's no trouble," Nack assured her.

As Lisa left, Nack shook his head. Lara noticed this and sighed. "You don't have to do what you're thinking about doing."

"But you'd appreciate it if I did?" Nack asked.

"Without a doubt," the grey tigress smiled. "But try to take it easy on him. I want my customers to be alive and healthy."

"How can you still call him a customer after what he and his friends did?" Nack grunted.

"I meant with the exception of him," Lara said. "I still don't want him, you know, dead."

"It'll be a warning," Nack assured. "A very painful one, but I'll keep calm."

"I hope so," said Lara. "You have a tendency to get violent. Then again, maybe that prick deserves it."

Nack nodded. "Don't worry. I'll try to go easy on him, but not too easy. For now, let us enjoy our breakfast."

Lara nodded back. "Is everything still going well for the plan soon?"

The purple weasel grinned. "Indeed it is. Martin is getting through to his contacts, just for backup reasons. We might not need them, but you never know."

"I've been meaning to ask," said Lara, "how did he get his hands on uniforms from other police forces?"

"I have no clue," said Nack, taking a sip of his coffee. "Maybe a prisoner owed him a favour, or maybe he's surprisingly good at crocheting. Whatever it is, we're thankful that he knows how."

"What about the ID cards?"

"Again, it'll take some work, but he can pull it off," Nack said. "How do you think I got into Green Hill in the first place?"

"Didn't the cops there recognise you anyway?" Lara asked.

"It's hard to keep a low profile when your past from one city follows you around," Nack shrugged. "I'm in more police databases from more cities and jurisdictions than I've ever even been to."

"But you do plan on going to those other cities, yes?"

"Oh, definitely," said Nack. "But, not right now. It's just going to have to wait. For now, we focus on Westopolis and our operation in Green Hill."

Lara nodded. "So, what about Manuel? In regards to his girls getting those drugs."

"I'm sure that they'll be fine for now," said Nack. "He seems to have it handled. But if it does happen again, then I'll find the sons of bitches who did it and I'll wring their necks."

"Can schools not be the one thing that stay safe in Westopolis?" Lara sighed. "Poor kids..."

"I know," Nack nodded, putting a hand on Lara's. "They deserve better than this. A city like this could - and possibly will - eat them alive."

"But not us," Lara followed on. "We're the ones who will take it over. Even if it is with the help of a cop..."

"Hey, don't doubt Martin's ability," said Nack. "He's the best dirty cop that I know."

"A dirty cop is still a cop," said Lara.

"You're starting to sound like Beau," Nack chuckled.

"I just... I don't want a cop's death to come out of it, no matter how dirty he may be," Lara said. "Violence is not my thing. Drugs are not my thing. Pleasure, sex, lust, maybe even love... that's me."

"And yet, you're fine with me punching that poor girl's stepdad?"

"Something tells me that I might be less happy when you do get around to that," Lara admitted. "But I'm not the one throwing my fists. That's why I use my brain and my body."

"You're definitely well-versed in how you use both," Nack smiled. "I don't suppose that we could have another business meeting tonight?"

"Sadly, a large bull of sorts booked me already," Lara shrugged.

"Huh," Nack said. "I never figured him as the type. I mean, I know that he mentioned something about it yesterday, but."

"It's probably just the stress of his new position," Lara said. "You know that he didn't want much part of this. Yet, he's easily the best fighter. He just doesn't want to hurt people."

"He runs guns around," Nack said. "Sometimes, he might not have a choice. Not to mention that illegal fighting ring that he runs."

"True, but at least nobody gets killed in those fights," Lara said. "Just violently concussed or choked out."

"Or a limb gets broken," said Nack, smiling before leaning forwards. "I know that my methods might not be the best, but I am trying to keep myself clean. And believe it or not, Westopolis is the safest place for any of us right now. The cops here won't bother us, the normal citizens here are too afraid to go near us, and cops from outside of Westopolis can't touch us. Not that the cops inside of Westopolis can be bothered anyway..."

"I just... I'm still worried about the risk of this," Lara admitted. "You have to understand that you're not the problem."

"I know," Nack said. "You think that it's Martin. But... why? I've given you every reason to trust me, and you did. But I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for him."

"You don't fully trust him, do you?" Lara asked.

Nack smiled. "Not fully. But I trust him enough that he'll help me without screwing any of us over. He wants to be a dirty cop on a stained force, and I say let him be."

The grey tigress nodded again, and the two finished their breakfast. As Nack was about to leave, he was stopped by Lara, who pulled him close to kiss him. He kissed back, and as the two stopped, she spoke first.

"Take care, Nack," she said.

"You too," he replied. "And good luck with Manuel tonight."

"I may need it," she giggled.

Nack smiled back and gave on final nod, heading into his car with his henchmen. They started it up, wasting no time in driving away. As they started moving away, the one driving the car spoke first.

"Do you want to take care of that stepfather now?" he asked.

Nack shook his head. "No. Too obvious." He paused. "I want to wait until he gets his friends with him."

"You said that you weren't going to kill him," said the other lackey.

Nack nodded. "I did say that. But his other friends are a completely different matter. We'll take care of it tonight, as that's most likely when they'll be grouped up again."

"Do you think that they'll all go to the same place again?" they asked.

"That's what I'm banking on," Nack said. "And, more often than not, my bets always pay off."

 **Meanwhile, back at the freelancer headquarters...**

Amy tossed and turned in Sonic's bed, feeling around for his body, but growing worried when she couldn't feel anything. Her worries were put aside when she felt movement near her feet, and she lifted the sheets to see Sonic's head at the bottom of the bed.

"Hey you," he smiled, crawling up and kissing her.

"Hey back," she replied when the kiss broke. "What were you doing down there?"

"Well, if you must know," he smirked, "I was planning on waking you up in a nice and rather pleasant way."

"But..." Amy said, extending the word.

"But the others are awake, so they might hear us," Sonic admitted. "Also, it'll be really difficult to explain why you'd have a delirious smile on your face at school all day. You teach kids, after all."

"I can call in sick," Amy winked.

"That may be so, but there's the matter of the three other Mobians that live here," Sonic reminded her.

"Stupid friends..." she joked.

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "Come on. Let's get dressed and drop you off. Your school is pretty far away, so the quicker that we move, the quicker that you get to your job."

"Trying to get rid of me?"

"If I could help it, you'd never be well enough for work again." Sonic then paused awkwardly. "That sounded better in my head."

Amy giggled. "I suppose that we should get some food."

"I suppose so," Sonic nodded. "Getting dressed might help too."

Amy nodded, and the two got dressed, with Amy putting on her clothes from last night as Sonic picked out a dark blue tank top, baggy black jeans, and white sneakers. He smiled as he watched Amy getting dressed again.

"Sorry that you don't have anything else to change into," he said.

"Eh, it's fine," Amy shrugged as the two left his room. "My kids don't know enough about how smells work to judge me."

"Good thing that we have a shower," Sonic smiled.

"Where?" Amy asked.

"At either end of the corridor," the blue hedgehog smiled back. "Anything you want for breakfast whilst you're in there?"

"Well, I can't stay long before I have to be at work..." Amy thought. "What can you ding me in the microwave?"

"We've got some pop tarts, I think," Sonic said.

"Ooh... sounds good!" Amy then giggled and turned to the bathroom on the left, rushing over there. "Thank you!"

Sonic chuckled, shaking his head before turning to the fire pole. He jumped on and slid down, seeing Knuckles eating some cereal in the kitchen, with Tails setting up some coffee and Shadow watching some TV in the living room.

"Yo, Shadow," Knuckles said.

"Yeah?"

"Could you turn up whatever show you've got on?"

Shadow chuckled. "I could. Alternatively, you could also bring your breakfast in here with you."

"I don't want to spill on the carpet by accident," Knuckles defended.

"You don't even use coasters," Tails pointed out.

"Oh, it's a little bit of orange juice," Knuckles said. "Get over it."

Sonic smiled and walked over to them. "Sup, brothers?"

"Brothers?" Knuckles said. "Shadow could be at a push, maybe."

"It'd be a hell of a stretch," Sonic smiled. "Also, our lady guest is using the shower, so don't mess around with the taps or anything."

Tails nodded. "I'll try to get a fix on that so that the pipes don't cross over and such."

"Got any plans for today with Amy?" Shadow asked, pausing what he was watching.

"Just taking her back home. Well, to her kindergarten to teach," Sonic corrected himself. "I'm sure that she'll get home afterwards."

"By the way," Knuckles said, "thanks for not screwing each other's brains out last night."

"Or this morning," Tails added.

"Last night we were too tired, and this morning she's got to leave early for work," Sonic said, going to the fridge. "We've got a job too, remember?"

"How come you guys make fun of each other's relationships so much?" Shadow asked.

"You've done it too," said Tails.

"Not as much as you guys," the black and red hedgehog said.

"Trust the only one here with two girls to not be judgemental about relationships," Knuckles muttered, finishing his breakfast.

"There's nothing going on between me and Maria. Or me and Rouge, for that matter."

"What about both at the same time?" Knuckles asked.

Shadow shook his head. "Give it a rest."

"He's right," Sonic said to Knuckles, putting Amy's requested breakfast in the microwave. "We shouldn't push him so much about his own girl troubles."

"Thanks... I guess..."

"And besides, you guys should focus on getting dressed," Sonic said. "We can't save the world if we're all still in our pyjamas."

"We may as well get it done quick," said Tails. "And we should take showers too."

"I'll leave you to it when I take Amy up to Little Hill," Sonic said.

"You're going alone?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah," Sonic shrugged as the microwave beeped. "It's not going to be a pain in the ass to take her to her job."

"What do we do if there's a mission?" Tails asked.

The blue hedgehog smiled. "Take care of it. I have faith in you." He put the pop tarts on a plate. "And besides, I won't be gone for that long. I'll drop her off, then I'll drive right back. Simple."

The others agreed, and soon, Amy was done in the shower. She had cleaned herself and came down using the fire pole, managing to handle it pretty well and landing on her feet. She smile as she walked over to the boys.

"You guys really need more feminine products in your bathrooms," she teased.

"I think that you're the only feminine-adjacent thing that we've had in this base, let alone in the shower," Knuckles smiled.

"Well, I've never been called feminine-adjacent before," Amy giggled, picking up some pop tarts for herself.

"He means it as a compliment," Sonic smirked. "Shall we?"

"We shall," she smiled, turning to wave at the others. "Bye, guys! Thanks for having me!"

"No problem!" Tails said, waving back with the others. As soon as they left through the doors, he smiled. "You know, I should bring Cosmo up here at some point."

"And maybe Shade might like it up here too," Knuckles added. Then both he and Tails slowly turned their heads to Shadow, who looked confused.

"What?" he asked.

"Which of your two girls are you going to bring up here first?" Knuckles asked.

Shadow shook his head and rolled his eyes before turning around, going back to watching TV. As he did, Sonic and Amy were getting into the blue hedgehog's car, with the aforementioned blue hedgehog starting up the vehicle.

"Any requests for tunes?" Sonic asked.

"Hmm... no," Amy said. "I want a nice, quiet drive with you."

"Does that mean that you want me to shut up?"

Amy giggled. "Well, you do have a tendency to drag on a bit."

Sonic laughed with her. "Yeah. I've been known to be a bit of a motormouth."

The two pulled out of the small alleyway, making it to the main road, and Sonic set a destination on his GPS for Little Hill, with Amy helping him since he'd never been there before.

"So, can I ask you a question?"

"Besides that one?" Amy smirked.

"Yeah," Sonic smiled. "I was wondering if it hurts."

"If what hurts?" Amy asked, curiously.

"Your heart thing," Sonic said, more serious now. "I mean, is it just this constant throbbing pain in your chest? Does it get super bad if you don't take your pills?"

"Oh," the pink hedgehog replied. "Well, it used to hurt a lot more. My medication helped me to balance it out from an early age. When I was a kid, I had a few fits related to it, but never a heart attack or a stroke. It wasn't until puberty hit that things really started to escalate."

"How come?" Sonic asked.

"High school was a part of it," Amy said. "As a teenager, my condition was more well-balanced, but I still needed more pills then than I do now. The only hour where I could take them was lunch, which was about an hour after when I'm actually supposed to take them because of strict rules in class. Due to that, I wound up throwing up a lot from a mixture of taking them late and... well, the obvious."

"Oh," Sonic said, realising what she was getting at. He then cleared his throat. "Did the teachers or council or anything ever change it up a bit so that you could take them during classes?"

"It took them a while, but yeah," Amy nodded. "Medicinal pills were still classified as drugs, and because I had a lot of them at the time, many people were worried that I'd go around selling them to other kids." She then scoffed. "I'm not that purple weasel guy."

"Something tells me that he's done that before," Sonic said.

"How goes the search for him?" Amy asked.

"Well... we can't really search for him," the blue hedgehog said after a brief pause. "As freelancers, we can't run our own stuff, so that means no looking for the piece of shit that hurt you and Rouge and those other girls."

"That doesn't mean that you're not searching for him," Amy said.

"We're not-" Sonic started, noticing Amy's look. He then sagged his shoulders a bit and spoke. "All right, yes, we're looking for Nack."

"But you're not supposed to be?"

"Pretty much," Sonic said. "This freelancer thing is basically a form of probation. If we get caught breaking that rule, we may never be able to help anyone again."

"So, why are you trying to do it on your own?" Amy asked.

"I'm not on my own," Sonic smiled. "I've got my friends to help me."

"You know what I mean," Amy said. "Won't the police at Green Hill help you out?"

"That's the problem," Sonic shrugged. "The police of whatever city we go to aren't the backup. That's usually what we are. We can't ask for that in return because of what we did..." Sonic paused. "Because of the choice that I made..."

"You made that choice to save people," Amy said. "You made that choice to help me and those other girls, and you made that choice because your friends said that they'd follow you."

"And look what happened to them."

Amy smiled softly. "You really should stop beating yourself up about this. Accident or not, you're all still alive. Be thankful for that."

Sonic nodded, reaching to touch Amy's hand, holding it as he drove the rest of the way. Soon, he'd reached Little Hill, and got out of his car to open the door for Amy, who smiled at the gesture of chivalry.

"Well, thank you, good sir," the pink hedgehog smiled.

"You make me sound like some old school British knight," Sonic chuckled.

Amy chuckled back and leaned in to kiss Sonic lightly on the lips, and he returned it. The kiss broke, and Amy gave him a hug. "Will I see you again any time soon?"

"If I get a day off, I'll let you know," Sonic said as they broke their embrace. "I could be very busy today for all that you know."

"Or you could be at home playing video-games and eating junk food," Amy teased.

"Like I said, busy," Sonic replied. "And besides, we've got a huge gym. I can work the pounds right out of me." Amy snickered, and Sonic chuckled. "That sounded better in my head."

Amy kept her smile and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you when I see you."

"You too," Sonic said as his girlfriend turned and walked to her building. "Have fun at school!"

"I will!" Amy smiled, waving over her shoulder.

Sonic shook his head, but his little bubble of happiness was popped when he heard phone sound off. He quickly reached into his pocket, searching for his phone and he eventually found it, answering it quickly.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Sonic! It's Espio!" came the voice from the other end.

"Oh, hey, man," Sonic smiled. "What's up?"

"We need you at the station," Espio said. "Myself and the other two have been working on something that you might like."

"And was it authorised by Green Hill Police Department in any way?"

Espio laughed. "Of course it was! Otherwise I wouldn't have a job, or an excuse to pick up Vector's chocolate bar wrappers."

Sonic smiled. "I'll see you there."

He then hung up, starting his car.

Meanwhile, Knuckles, Shadow, and Tails had taken the red echidna's car, as they'd gotten a similar call not long before Sonic did, and they were steadily making their way across the roads of Green Hill to get to the department.

"What do you think that it could be?" Shadow asked, wearing a red and black striped t-shirt, beige jeans, and black boots.

"No clue," Knuckles shrugged, wearing a light blue button up shirt over a white tank top, with blue jeans and black sneakers. "But Espio did say that we'd like it. Good thing that he said that he'd call Sonic afterwards too. Saves me a job."

"Should we wait for him so that we can all start?" Tails asked, wearing a dark grey long sleeved shirt with a superhero design on the sleeves, along with dark blue jeans and tan flat shoes. "Or do we just go in there and check it out for ourselves?"

"Eh, he'll find out when he gets here," Knuckles said, pulling up to the parking lot of the department.

"But that could take him a while," said Tails. "You've got to remember, Amy's school is quite far away from here."

"Good thing that he took his own car," Shadow said. "We'll be fine without him, Tails. It's not like we're on a mission."

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "He'll be here soon."

The two-tailed fox nodded, and soon, Knuckles found a good parking spot before killing the engine. He got out of his car, followed by the others soon after, and the red echidna got around to the trunk of his car, getting a bag out of there.

"Good thing that I brought these," he said.

"You didn't have to bring the uniforms with us," said Shadow.

"I know, but what if this thing is some kind of experiment and they want to use us as guinea pigs?"

"You're being paranoid," Tails chuckled as they walked over to the building.

The doors opened automatically for them, and Tails smiled at Cosmo, who blushed in return as she spoke. "We were told that you were coming, so we went ahead and got the doors for you."

"You can do that from there?" Knuckles asked. "That's pretty cool."

"Where are they?" Shadow asked.

"They're where they usually are," said Mina. "I see that you brought your uniforms with you. In bags, no less."

"Yeah, we thought that it'd be for the best in case we got hurt," said Knuckles. "Will we need to put these on?"

"We don't know yet," Cosmo smiled. "It's cool that you guys brought your own uniforms and we have to wear ours almost all the time."

"Even as secretaries, you guys are still being kept safe," said Knuckles. "Smart thinking from Avery."

"Thanks," smiled Mina. "Now go on and get yourselves sorted. They'll fill you in when you get there."

"Do you guys have any info for us before we go?" Tails asked.

"Nope," Cosmo shook her head. "But I'll give you a kiss for luck, if you want?"

Tails blushed, nodding and moving forward. He and Cosmo shared a light kiss together, and when it broke, the yellow fox couldn't hide his expression. He was brought back out of his spell when Shadow waved his hand over Tails' eyes.

"You all good?" he asked.

"Oh... yeah," Tails said. "I'll be fine."

Cosmo leaned over to hug Tails. "Go on. I'll still be here when you get back," she smiled.

Tails nodded, and he and his friends walked over to the elevator, taking it up to the second floor where the armoury was. After they'd reached their destination, they took a look around, smiling to themselves.

"Place still looks as pristine as it ever did," Shadow noted.

As he spoke, Espio walked out of the armoury to greet them. "Ah, there you guys are."

"Espio!" Knuckles smiled. "Still enjoying the uniform, I see?"

"Yeah, the others are wearing it more too," he said. "We figured that if we're going to be handling the weaponry and such, we might as well get our own armour on to be safe."

"Good priority," Tails smiled. "So, do we get to see this new thing yet?"

"Soon," said Espio.

"You do have a big training area back there, right?" Shadow asked.

"Yep," said Charmy, also flying out to meet them. "Although it's not the roomiest place in the world, but it's good for basic test runs of weapons."

"So, we're getting a new gun or something?"

"Not quite," said Charmy. "Come with us."

"Shouldn't we wait for-" Tails was about to ask, but then his phone went off, so he picked it up, seeing Sonic's face. "Speak of the blue and fuzzy devil..."

"Hey, man," Sonic said. "Just giving you a heads up that I'm almost there."

"Why didn't you text me instead?" Tails asked.

"Because it's harder to text and drive at the same time," said Sonic. "Besides, it's easier to speak when I've got my phone clipped to the dashboard of my car. If I were leaning down to type, it'd just be a pain in the ass."

"Good point," Tails smiled. "How far off are you?"

"I'm almost at the Jade Mountain," Sonic said.

"All right," said Tails. "Meet us on the second floor. That's where we'll be."

"Will do. See you then."

"We can do this without him," said Espio. "Unless you guys want to wait out here?"

"Hmm..." Knuckles thought, looking at Shadow and Tails, who just shrugged. "Nah, we'll check it out."

"Good," Espio smiled, leading them into the armoury. They high-fived Vector as they passed him, with Tails noticing that the crocodile was playing a video-game on his computer before pausing it and getting up from his desk.

"It's kinda cold back here," said Tails. "And dark."

"Allow me to shed some light on the subject," Vector punned as he turned the lights on.

"You're just as bad as Knuckles," said Shadow.

"No, Vector's are worse," said Charmy.

"I'm only letting you get away with that because of how much you helped with this thing," Vector said, gesturing to the centre of the room. "Boys... feast your eyes."

Tails, Shadow, and Knuckles all shrugged, walking over to the centre and seeing what appeared to be a skateboard, but much more high-tech and without any wheels attacked to it. Its colour appeared to be that of the signature silver and electric blue of G.H.P.D.. It was metal instead of wood, and it had a rectangular design with the sides bent inwards, and some triangular looking spikes protruding from the front.

"There's only one of these?" Tails asked.

"There will be more to come," said Espio. "But for now, that's all that you're getting."

"I kinda feel like we can't do this without Sonic now," said Knuckles.

"Are you sure that you want to wait for him?" asked Charmy.

"Are you kidding?" the red echidna smiled. "Look at this! This is... awesome."

"Well... thank you..." Charmy smiled.

"We can't do this without him," Tails agreed. "He needs to see this."

"See what?" asked a voice from behind them. They turned to see Sonic, walking over to them. He was about to speak, but then saw what the others were gathered around. "What is that?"

"This is the new technology that we and some of the science heads have been working on," said Charmy. "We don't have a name for it yet, since it's just a prototype. And we only have one copy."

"That's fine," Sonic said. "It looks pretty damn cool."

"We didn't want to try it without you," said Tails.

"You could have," said Sonic with a shrug. "I would have been cool with it."

"Well, you got here before they could have tried it anyway," said Espio. "What took you so long?"

"Oh, I was dropping my girlfriend off at her job," Sonic said. "She lives in the western part of the city, so it's far away from here."

"Well, damn," said Vector. "Must be a hell of a girl for you to pull that off for her."

"Least I could do," Sonic smiled. "She really is a hell of a girl, though."

"That aside," said Charmy, "are you guys ready to give this thing a test run?"

"Let's give it a shot," Tails smiled. "Dibs on first!"

"Dammit... I wanted to go first..." Knuckles moped.

 **Meanwhile, at Little Hill Nursery School...**

It was playtime, and Amy had let her students out onto a playground not too far from them. It was a small area, with its dark green grass cut down to make it easier for the kids to get around as well as cut down on possibilities of hay-fever and such.

She watched as a pair of her kids played a small game of soccer, passing the ball between each other. She stayed where she was and sighed happily. She took a chance to go through her phone and smiled as she saw a picture of Sonic.

"He's not a bad looking guy, is he?" said a voice from behind her.

Amy froze up and turned around, seeing a brown squirrel with red hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue jacket over a black button up blouse along with blue jeans and light blue boots. The pink hedgehog hugged her.

"Sally!" she smiled. "Oh my goodness! It's so good to see you again!"

Sally hugged back, smiling in return. "You too. And with a new boyfriend who just so happens to be my old one."

Amy pulled away from the hug immediately. "Really?" Her eyes then widened. "I'm sorry, Sally..."

"It's fine," the squirrel smiled. "In all honesty, I'm glad that he wound up with you and not your sister."

"Me too," Amy giggled. "So, are you back for good this time?"

"Yep," said Sally. "Sorry that I was away for so long. I was just taking a nice trip around Mobius, doing some backpacking."

"You teach the highest grade of kids here," Amy smiled. "Some of them actually wanted to go with you."

"I was only gone for a month and a half," Sally smirked. "I would have taken them, though. I love the kids here."

"Me too," Amy smiled.

Sally looked over Amy's students, smiling as one of them waved nervously at her before speaking. "Is Honey still here?"

"Yeah," Amy asked. "Why? Did you miss her too?"

"Just wanted to reconnect with some old friends while I'm here," Sally said. "And that does include Sonic."

"Oh..."

"But you don't have to worry."

"Oh?"

"Because... well, I'm over him now. I've got a boyfriend of my own."

"Oh."

"Is that all that you can say?" Sally giggled.

"I'm just a bit surprised," Amy said. "You come back after a month and a half away and this is what you say when you come back? It's a lot to take in at once."

"Well, I did kinda drop off the face of the earth after me and Sonic split," Sally said. "I wanted to focus on my studies, and part of those studies happened to lead me to being a teacher here."

"I know how it goes," Amy said. "You weren't even her for a week before taking your trip. What happened with that?"

Sally shrugged. "I guess that I needed some time away. With him being in the academy and me wanting to focus more on my teaching after the breakup, it got to me pretty hard."

"I get that," Amy said. "And you can reconnect with Sonic whenever you want."

Sally smiled. "I promise, I won't try anything with him. I just want to be friends with him."

"Well, your breakup wasn't too bad, from what I hear," Amy said.

"It wasn't," Sally admitted. "But it was still hard to live with for a bit. Luckily, studying and training all worked out well for me, and here I am... again."

"It's good to see you," Amy smiled. "You take care, okay?"

"You too," Sally said, kissing Amy's cheek before leaving.

As the brown squirrel left, the pink hedgehog smiled at having her friend back. She wasn't worried about her return, as she'd promised not to chase after Sonic since she had her own boyfriend to worry about.

"I should call him about this..." Amy said to herself. "But after school is over." She then heard the small bell go off. "All right, kids! Playtime's over!"

A lot of the toddlers gave audible noises of disappointment and headed back inside, with Amy following behind them shortly after. She sat at her desk and looked over her kids as they sat down on the floor.

"All right," she said, grabbing a radio. "Now we're going to learn our numbers through song!"

"Yay!"

Amy giggled, keeping her call for Sonic in mind for later as she sang along with her kids to help them to learn their basic numbers. It was a nice relief to be around them, with their infectious energy and adorable nature rubbing off on her and making her laugh along with them.

* * *

 **And that's another one finally done! I would have gotten it done sooner, but the site has been randomly crapping out for me. Anyway... yeah! I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and that Sally's first appearance did her justice as a character. For those wondering if she'll be some sort of bad guy or do something horrible, then I can safely say that... well, no. I don't like the idea of demonising her, because it's old hat, and also because it's just really lazy by this point. Regardless, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	27. Kick It Up A Notch

In Westopolis, Manuel, wearing a tight long-sleeved grey shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes, was sat in his own office of his warehouse, looking at a camera feed of a fight. He watched a pair of Mobians fight in a cage, one a blue bobcat wearing a pair of dark purple shorts and black trainers, , and the other a dark yellow ferret wearing a red t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and brown boots. Between the two, the bobcat had the advantage, having taken the ferret down, landing punch after punch.

"This might have to be stopped soon," Manuel said to himself. After a few more punches were landed, he spoke into the microphone next to him. "All right, that's enough. Break it up."

The two in the cage did so, and the bobcat spoke up first. "I win, then?"

Manuel smiled. "TKO. You've got a good wrestling base, dude. Well-earned victory."

"Thanks."

Manuel watched as the fighters left their cage, and soon he heard his phone ringing, so he picked it up. "Hello? Oh, you're here. Good. No... just wait outside. I'll be right out."

He then got up from his seat, leaving his office and going down the stairs to the ground floor. He made sure to congratulate the fighters before clearing his throat, making a break from them and gathering some with him.

"All right, our new shipment of weapons is here," the bull spoke. "I need a few of you to come to the front with me and get them in."

"You got it."

Manuel nodded back, picking five others to go with him, not including the two men that had just fought. They left from the group and headed up their catwalk before making way for the main door.

They soon reached it, and Manuel grinned when he saw his own cop friend. "Harvey! What's up?"

"Not much, big fella," Harvey smiled. He was an older cop, and whilst he did still have his hands in some dirt, he was much cleaner than others. He was a bit older, with greying hair and a dark beard peppered with specks of silver, and his light blue eyes slightly faded. Like other Westopolis cops, he wore the standard Westopolis police uniform, along with some medals in regards to his service.

"New shipment?" Manuel smiled.

"I had to scrape and scratch for them," Harvey said. "I've got a friend in the military who managed to hot-wire these to me. They're better than the ones that I already gave you."

"How so?"

"Well, I stole those ones myself," Harvey smirked. "They weren't quite fully military grade, as they were the old technology that they didn't want to use any more. But these?" He hooked a thumb to a truck behind him. "State of the art. Well, state of the art for this shit-hole of a city."

"I'd like to take a look at them first," Manuel said, turning to his men. "Get a box down."

Two of them nodded, going to the truck as Harvey opened it, along with a small ramp coming down to help them up there. They went up the ramp, seeing five crates full of what they could only assume to be spectacular weaponry, and they grabbed the nearest one, pulling it down.

"Only five boxes?" Manuel asked.

"Double-layered," said Harvey.

"That's been going around a lot lately..." Manuel whispered, hoping that Harvey wouldn't hear it.

The pair of Manuel's men came back to their boss with his box. The bull himself cracked his knuckles before opening the crate, seeing several varieties of machine guns, SMGs, and other types of weapons.

"All right, let's lift these out and see what else there is," Manuel said.

His men nodded, working quickly to lift the weapons out. More of Manuel's group decided to help out later, soon emptying all of the boxes. The secondary layer was similar to the first, only with smaller guns like revolvers and pistols since said layer was smaller.

"This is a big help," Manuel smiled.

"Eh, it's no problem," Harvey said. "Anything to help your girls."

"I'll transfer the money over to you later," Manuel said. He then paused. "Actually... how would you like your old weapons back as well?"

"Paying me with interest?" the old cop laughed. "I'm flattered, but no. You have a use for them, and I don't."

"How come?" Manuel asked. "I know very little about you beyond your name and the fact that you're a cop who's not fully on the side of good."

"It's at least fifty one percent," Harvey winked. "And the truth is I'm not a big fan of guns. I use them, but they're not my style."

"Then what is your style?" Manuel asked.

"Knives," Harvey answered. "I don't have any on me right now, but I can hook you up with some next time, if you'd like?"

Manuel thought about it. "All right."

"You'll do it even though it'll cost extra?"

Manuel nodded. "I'll pay the cost, man. If I can make enough money back from selling guns, then who knows how much I'll make with knives too."

"I'll put you in an order," Harvey smiled. "How soon do you need them?"

"Hmm... by Thursday?" said Manuel. "We've got something big going down, and I am going to be out of town on Friday."

"Just knives, yes?"

"Hopefully we'll stay out of enough trouble to not run out of bullets by then," Manuel smiled. "Don't bring a lot."

"How long will you be out of town for?" Harvey asked.

"Not too long," Manuel said. "It does kinda depend. After we've done what we're going to do, we're coming back up here."

"You know, Martin told me the plan," the old cop said. "I hate that sleaze-bag, but we do talk on occasion. I know what you're planning."

The Spanish bull chuckled. "No getting past you, right?"

"Hey, if it's for the betterment of Westopolis, then I won't try to stop it," Harvey said with a shrug.

"I don't know if betterment is the best word for it," Manuel said. "Then again, who knows? Maybe Nack being so high up will help out the city."

"You mean, it'll help out men like him," said Harvey. "That does include you."

"I'll only fight if I have to," said Manuel. "I don't do what I do just for me."

Harvey nodded. "Fair enough." He then paused, extending his hand to the bull. "Anyway, I'd best get back to the station. I'll remember to bring you your knives next time."

"And I'll remember the cash," Manuel replied with a smile, shaking the old man's hand. "And I'll tell Nack the first chance that I get."

"Sure thing," said Harvey as the grip broke. "See you when I see you."

The old man then got into his van, waving goodbye one final time in the side mirror. Manuel waved back before walking up behind the van, slapping the back of it a couple of times, signalling it to get on its way.

It then drove up and away, and Manuel went back inside, seeing another fight getting underway. Instead of heading to his office, he walked through the crowd and stepped up to the cage. The two fighters hadn't started yet, so he walked in, speaking loudly for the crowd to hear.

"All right, a couple of things!" he said. "First of all, for those who haven't noticed, we got a new shipment of weapons! But they ain't just anything. Our friend in the force managed to get his hands on some legit military weaponry. Whenever you guys want, feel free to try them out in the shooting range." There were murmurs and chuckles in the crowd, and Manuel continued. "Secondly, our next shipment is also going to come up with something extra. We're going to be getting some more physical weaponry next time."

"How physical?" asked someone from the crowd.

"Small, pointy, and easy to conceal," Manuel chuckled. "It will cost a bit more, but if we can get our new guns out, we should be able to cover the cost. That's how we keep our part of Westopolis. More importantly, that's how we grow further. Nack gave us the east side to keep it. Let's stick to our end of the deal. You guys got all that?"

"YES, SIR!" they all said, partially mocking but actually agreeing with their leader.

"One more quick thing," Manuel pointed out. "I want those new guns tested out as soon as possible. As for where to ship them, just the usual spots where we make our deals. Same goes for knives."

"Anything else?" asked someone from the crowd.

"That about covers it," said Manuel. "Oh, and you all get to go home early tonight. I'm going to pay Lara a visit tonight, so remember to lock your shit up before you leave, okay?"

"We got it!"

Manuel chuckled. "Good. Now, get the next fight underway. I'll be watching from upstairs."

The others all either nodded or gave some verbal reply of agreement, and the fight was underway. Manuel went back up to his office, sitting down in his chair and picking up his phone, typing in Nack's number.

The purple weasel picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Nack," Manuel said. "Um... I kind of embellished a bit with my gun running."

"Oh?" Nack said. "Explain, please."

"The guy that I get my usual stuff from? Well, I'm going to go for something new."

"Upgrading your weapons?" Nack asked.

"More like adding on," said Manuel. "I'm looking to get my hands on some knives."

"And you made this deal with your man just now?"

"I did," the bull said. "I'm hoping to cover the cost with what I sell from the guns that I currently have, since I haven't tested the upgraded ones that I just got."

"Then get them tested," Nack said with a smile. "Do you want me to give you more money?"

"No," Manuel said. "With all due respect, I want to make it back on my own."

The purple weasel smiled. "I can appreciate that. All right, you take care."

"Will do."

"Oh, and Manuel?"

"Yes?"

"Try not to go too rough with Lara."

The bull chuckled. "I won't be. See you when I see you." The two then hung up, and Manuel kicked back in his chair. "Hmm... I wonder if I should dress up for tonight..."

 **Meanwhile, back at Green Hill Police Department...**

"I want to give it a shot first," said Tails. "I called dibs on it!"

"And I'm the strongest one, so I say that I get to go first!" said Knuckles.

"I can't believe that you guys are being such children about this," Sonic said. "Besides, I'm the leader, and I get to pick who goes first."

"And is that yourself?" Shadow asked.

"Actually, I was going to pick you," Sonic shrugged.

Vector shook his head. "Guys... look..." he began. "There's no point in arguing over it. We don't have much time to help you out, so pick somebody to give it a shot."

"We're sorry," said Tails. "It's just... it's so cool!"

"Yep," Sonic agreed. "The design just looks awesome."

"Imagine how much easier that'll make getting around," Knuckles added. "Not to mention cooler."

"It's kind of a shame that there's only one of them," Shadow said. The other three looked at him, and he shrugged. "What? I can't appreciate a cool piece of technology?"

"You can," said Tails. "We just don't usually expect it from you. I'm supposed to be the cute and fluffy nerd, remember?"

"So, how about it?" Sonic said to Shadow. "You want to give it a shot?"

The black and red hedgehog looked a bit surprised. "I mean... Tails did call for it first..."

"Thank you!" the two-tailed fox replied, throwing his hands up.

Sonic shrugged. "Well, I can't compete with that logic. All right, you're up first, fox boy."

Tails smiled, but then realised something as he looked around. "Where exactly am I supposed to test this out?"

In response, a voice came on over the radio. "Hello, boys!"

"Rotor!" they all replied happily.

"The big old walrus is going to set up a course for you in this room," said Vector. "Holographic, obviously."

"Just like the one at our base," Knuckles smiled. "That's pretty cool."

"Let's see..." the walrus said to himself, regardless of the fact that he was on a speaker. "This room is pretty big... it should give you enough space to have a course..." He kept murmuring to himself and typing on the keyboard, the impact of his fingers on the plastic loud enough for those in the armoury room to hear. After a few more moments, he was finished. "There we go!" he said proudly, hitting a key to load it up.

Those in the room waited as a course formed around them, almost filling the room to full capacity. Various rails and small kicker ramps or various shades of red and grey with some wood thrown in for good measure make themselves present, showing many opportunities to show the new technology off.

"This is how it'll go," Rotor said. "I won't be changing this course to benefit any of you better, and I won't be judging your own performances, but rather how the board performs alongside you. You'll start from where you are, hopping over that small kicker ramp. You'll follow that up with a transfer over a quarter-pipe into another one, leading you to a rail to grind on. You'll then round off that large rounded half-pipe, leading you to the second half of the course. You go through a loop at first, leading you to another ramp to hop off of, this time onto another rail. You'll then have a long kicker ramp to ride along, and after that is another rounded off half-pipe and a rounded rail next to that. Choose either of those methods to finish the course."

"What if one of us falls off of the board?" Sonic asked.

"Seriously? Your faith in me is that low?" Tails kidded.

Rotor smiled. "That won't be a worry. Put the board under your feet, and you'll see what I mean."

The yellow fox nodded, throwing the board down and hopping onto it. On cue, a pair of straps appeared, wrapping around his feet and keeping him locked in place. They weren't so tight as to restrict blood flow, and Tails tested this by moving a foot out on the ground before moving it back.

"All right... let's give this a shot..." he said nervously. The board appeared to be reading his mind as it started moving on its own, and he wavered a bit, keeping his balance.

"Why is the board moving on its own?" asked Sonic.

"That's one of the features," said Espio. "Wherever the rider wants to go, the board goes there. All that the rider has to do is sometimes turn his body."

"Two-way street, huh?"

"Yep," Charmy said. "After all, what's a rider without his board?"

"Good point."

Back with Tails, the fox was making it through so far. He'd already cleared the kicker ramp and was just now coming over the quarter-pipe, landing past one side and into the next with ease, soon coming up to the rail. On instinct, Tails hopped up, grabbing the side of his board as he ground along the rail, coming off at the other end damn near flawlessly before reaching the large half-pipe.

"That was sick!" said Knuckles. "Who knew that the little guy could shred like that?"

"It can't just be the board," Sonic said.

Tails grabbed the sides of his board as he came around the large half-pipe, keeping his grip as he passed through the loop. He was a bit worried when he was upside down, but was relieved when he made it through without any injury. He then made it to the next ramp, hopping from that and doing a flip trick to show off before landing on the rail, grinding down it with ease. Next was the long kicker ramp, which he chose to hop over, doing a side grab as he cleared the gap. It then came to the last part of the course, and he decided to stay high, bypassing the rounded rail and going for the large ramp at the back instead, coming out the other side with a smile.

"How'd it look?" Tails asked.

"You kicked ass out there, dude!" Sonic smiled. "You tore up that course!"

"Where'd you learn to skate like that?" Shadow added.

"I didn't," Tails shrugged. "The board just kind of knew what I wanted to do, and it did it. Almost like it read my mind."

Vector scratched his head. "Yo, Rotor!"

"Yeah?" the purple walrus replied.

"These boards can't read people's minds, can they?"

"Nope!" said Rotor. "There's nothing metaphysical going on with them. They simply react to what the rider wants. No mind reading or tapping into anything. They move with the rider, and they react with the rider."

"Well, there you have it," the green crocodile smiled. "Turns out that it was part you and part the board."

"It's almost like I kinda said that already..." Espio muttered.

"So, who wants to go next?" Charmy asked.

"How about our fearless leader?" Knuckle suggested.

"Might be worth a shot," Sonic shrugged.

Tails smiled, handing the board over to Sonic, who took it as Knuckles spoke again. "By the way, me and Shadow have a little game going on."

"What would that be?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we're timing you guys on how fast you can make it around the course," Shadow explained. "Tails made a pretty good time of 46.77."

"How are you even checking that?" Tails asked.

Knuckles pulled a phone from his pocket, showing the paused time. "We did it whilst Sonic wasn't looking."

"How did I not notice you guys doing that before?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"You were distracted by my mad skills?" Tails suggested.

"Let's go with that," Sonic said. "Those skills were quite mad indeed."

Tails shook his head. "So, what's the point of the game?"

"Oh, the loser has to buy food later tonight," said Knuckles. "The usual."

"Jade Mountain?" Tails asked.

"Did I or did I not say the usual?" Knuckles smirked.

"Whilst I don't approve of you boys betting on it," said Rotor, "I'm only here to observe, not judge. Sonic, are you ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," the blue hedgehog replied.

"All right," said Vector. "3... 2... 1... go!"

"And he's off!" said Knuckles, clicking the timer on his phone, Shadow watching said timer and Tails looked as his friend went to work on the course.

Sonic cleared the kicker first, doing a heel-flip for good measure before doing a 360 degree spin over the quarter-pipe ramps. He then felt his speed boost up after that, moving him quicker. He quickly hopped up onto the rail, grinding along it in a straight line before reaching the half-pipe. With a smirk on his face, he flew up the half-pipe, spinning himself whilst spinning the board under his feet, landing perfectly as he came back down, giving him another speed boost.

"How come he's getting faster?" asked Tails.

"Oh, when a rider spins and lands perfectly, the speed of the board is boosted. They can use tricks whilst spinning, but using tricks on their own is useless," Rotor said.

"Sounds like some bass-ackwards video-game mechanic," said Shadow.

"Wish you'd told us that beforehand," Tails complained. "I'd probably have been faster..."

Sonic, meanwhile, kept his pace going. He made it through the loop without any issues, followed by the ramp onto the next rail, spinning as he ground on it, mostly to show off. He then cleared the long kicker with a single jump, the speed boost having helped his momentum. Finally, he reached the half-pipe, choosing to go up it again to grind along the top of it, landing back down with the others.

"That was fucking sweet!" he said.

"Had fun?" Knuckles asked.

"Hell yeah!" Sonic panted, still smiling. "What's my time?"

"Probably better than mine..." Tails mumbled.

"42.57," Knuckles said, showing his phone. "Those speed boosts really helped out."

"So, who's next?" Charmy asked.

"I guess I'll go next," said Shadow.

Sonic nodded, handing his friend the board. "Good luck."

"Figures," Knuckles said. "I wanted to go first so badly, and here I am about to go last."

"Unless we get called for a mission when Shadow's all finished," Tails said.

"Dude, don't even joke about that," Knuckles warned.

Shadow shook his head, getting on the board. "Do I get a countdown too?"

"I don't see why not," Vector smiled. "3... 2... 1... go!"

Shadow started off, hopping over the kicker ramp and doing a small spin before approaching the quarter-pipe, hopping over it and pulling off a method grab trick for style before he approached the rail. He hopped up, landing the lip of the board on it and completing the grind with ease before he reached the half-pipe. Unlike the others, he stayed low on the half-pipe and did a small spin as he turned into the second half of the course, getting some extra speed for his troubles.

"Smart move there by Shadow," Espio said.

"Even little spins can get you the right result," shrugged Vector.

Shadow soon approached the loop, staying still as he rounded it. He then reached the ramp after that, jumping high off it and pulling off another small spin before landing on the rail, performing a crooked grind. Lastly was the long kicker, which he decided to manual on top of, doing small, technical tricks and landing each one accurately. Lastly was the final half-pipe/rail, and he chose the latter, grinding around it and landing perfectly.

"And there we go," he smiled to himself. "What's my time?"

"43.09," Knuckles said. "Damn close to Sonic's time."

"It was that high jump," Shadow surmised. "I went for height over distance."

"Hey, at least you don't have to buy food for everyone else," Tails said. "And you got a countdown, same with Sonic."

"Oh, yeah," Sonic said. "You didn't get one."

"I didn't get a lot of things during my run on the board, dude," Tails said. "Good lord... I'm turning bitter and old already..."

"Eh, don't worry about it," Shadow said, handing the board off to Knuckles. "At least you'll be buying us good food."

"That's a fair point," Tails conceded.

"All right, the best is going last," Knuckles said, setting himself up on the board.

"Good luck, buddy," Sonic said.

"All right!" said Espio. "3... 2... 1... go!"

The red echidna smiled and pushed forward on the board, getting a good start. He hopped up over the kicker easily, then passed the quarter-pipes with a brief spin, but didn't land it how he'd wanted, resulting in his balance being off kilter. He regained it in time for the rail, hopping up with a grab and grinding along it before hopping off. He came up and around the half-pipe, staying low like Tails did during his turn. He approached the loop, and got an idea as he reached it. As he went through it, he did a little hop whilst upside down and spun, landing it perfectly and boosting his speed to the next ramp.

"That was a power move by Knuckles there!" said Vector.

"Wait, hold up," said Sonic. "Those things can just do that?"

"Well... yeah," said Espio. "They're hover-boards, meaning that they can cross over just about any surface, horizontal or otherwise."

"Once again, information that would have been handier if we'd been told beforehand," Tails grumbled.

On the course, Knuckles was carrying on, speeding past the ramp and just then coming off of the rail with a grind whilst balanced on the back end of the board. Then was the long kicker ramp, which he chose to be more unique with, grinding along the side of it before spinning off at the end, landing it and giving himself another speed boost. He then chose to go up the half-pipe at the end, doing a small spin on the way up before landing back down in a curve, meeting his friends at the end of the course.

"Sonic was right," he said, kicking the board up to his hand. "That really was pretty fucking sweet."

"It was," Tails agreed. "I'll bet that even Shadow had fun with it."

The black and red hedgehog nodded. "I did. Like I said, I like the board's look. Its feel is even better."

"No wonder he doesn't want either of his girlfriends," Knuckles joked. "He's got his eyes set on a beautiful piece of technology."

"A beautiful piece of technology that we need back," said Charmy.

"Oh, right," the red echidna said, handing it to the bee. "Sorry."

"No worries," said Espio. "And besides, at least we'll have our work cut out for us now."

"How so?" Sonic asked.

"Well, this might have just been a test run, but we do have our scientists working on more as we speak," said Rotor. "I'll be helping however I can, as well these three gentleman alongside you."

"So, was this a success?" Tails asked. "Do we get to go home now?"

"It was, and yes, you do," Rotor said. "I've got a live feed going from here up to the science and technology department."

"Where are those guys, anyway?" asked Sonic. "We know that they're here working on stuff, not to mention teaming with Simian as well to help speed things up."

"Oh, they're on the top floor," said Vector. "Since that's where most of the big stuff goes on, that's the best place to check things out."

"Actually, that reminds me," said Tails. "I've brought up maybe making them myself, but I don't really know when I'll have much free time to do it."

"That's sad but true," Espio agreed.

"But then again, maybe a different fox could help you guys out," Tails shrugged.

"You mean your father?" asked Charmy.

"Well, he is a mechanic who runs his own shop," said Sonic. "Tails must have told him about the Gear Boards technology, and he did say that they're working on a variation of it."

"How do you know that he's competent enough to handle technology this advanced?" asked Charmy.

"Because he's also helped with the implants," the yellow fox answered.

"All right, we'll give it a shot," said Rotor. "I'll talk it over with Avery."

"No need to worry about that," said Tails. "We can go talk to him ourselves."

"You sure?" Rotor asked. "It's no bother for me to bring it up with him."

"Sure I'm sure," Tails smiled.

"Well, let's get that done before heading back out," Sonic said. "Maybe we can make use of our quiet time when we get back to base."

"How so?" Knuckles asked.

"Video-games, heavy music, and junk food."

"Good thinking."

They didn't wave goodbye to the others, who followed them out, carrying their board in hand. As soon as Sonic and his friends left the armoury, as did Espio, Vector, and Charmy, turning to make their way to an elevator to take to the top floor.

"Hey, guys," Mina and Cosmo said.

"Hey, girls," Knuckles replied.

"How'd it go with the test?" asked Cosmo.

"Not too bad," Sonic said. "The Gear Board is actually pretty cool, and since the test was successful, they're on about making more really quick."

"Do they have enough to pull that off?" Shadow asked the girls.

"Yeah," said Mina. "Believe it or not, they've got a lot of good technology to help them out. They helped a lot with the stuff set up in your guys' new base."

"That's pretty cool," said Tails. "That does explain a lot of things too."

"I guess that Avery couldn't give us the full tour at first," Sonic shrugged.

"So, what are you boys up to?" Cosmo asked, looking directly at Tails as she said it, who blushed.

"Well, we're actually going to take a trip to see our boss," Knuckles said. "We're going to see if we can't get fluffy boy's dad to come over and help out with the proceedings."

"His dad knows about these?" Mina asked, impressed.

"Actually, he's done some research into it, but nothing too tangible," Tails admitted. "Getting him over here to work with the best minds at this department will hopefully speed things up a bit quicker."

"And are you doing anything after that?" Cosmo asked, once again looking at Tails, who once again blushed.

"We were planning on going home and doing nothing until another mission comes up," Sonic said.

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "And Tails here lost a bet, so he has to pay for food tonight. And by food, we obviously mean Jade Mountain."

"In his defence," Shadow said, "Tails didn't know about the bet until his lap was over, not to mention the spinning the board thing."

"Don't act like you care," Tails said. "You and Knuckles are the guys who set that stupid bet up in the first place."

"Be angry at me all you want," Knuckles said. "We ain't the ones buying food tonight."

"Actually, that's where you're wrong," Shadow said.

"Wrong? Wrong how?" Knuckles asked.

"Well... I just realised that we never showed you your time after that final lap was over," Shadow said. "I've still got your phone, and it's got the time paused."

"Show me. Now."

The black and red hedgehog nodded, pulling his friend's phone from his pocket. Knuckles took the phone as soon as it was in sight, and read over it, falling to his knees as he looked at the time, shuddering.

"What is it?" Mina asked.

"47 seconds... on the dot..." Knuckles said.

"Yes!" Tails cheered, raising his hands. "Sorry. Was that out loud?"

"Only a little bit," said Sonic.

"Good," Tails nodded, his arms still raised.

"All right, slow down there, Daniel Bryan," Sonic smiled. "Let's get up to see Avery, okay?"

Tails nodded, and they all turned to leave, with Knuckles dragging himself up to his feet to follow them. They took the stairs up to the third floor as the elevators were busy, and soon, they'd reached their room, with Shadow knocking on the door.

"Hello?" asked Avery on the other side.

The four outside walked in as the door opened, seeing Simian and Avery sat around the table, with Ash helping on the side with a presentation, being the first to speak to them. "Ah, there they are. We were just talking about you guys."

"I wondered why my ears were burning," said Tails. "Then again, that's because my brain's just always like that."

"So, what's the situation?" Sonic asked, gesturing to the presentation on the wall. "Why were you talking about us?"

"We were discussing your positions in regards to the prison transfer coming up soon," Simian answered.

"Won't we all be in the same vehicle?" Shadow asked.

"Not likely," Ash said. "Given how big these convoys have a tendency to be, there won't be enough room for all of you in one car. Maybe two, but no more than that."

"A prison transfer is serious business," Avery added. "Regardless of what we're doing or who we're sending out, we need to take the utmost caution and care."

"Fair enough," Sonic nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, there'll be a total of eight G.H.P.D. vehicles, with four each being both behind and in front of the prison vehicle," Ash said, pushing on his remote to bring up more slides. "There'll be three standard cars, each led by a van."

"And those vans are the ones that'll maybe fit two of us, I'm guessing?" asked Knuckles.

"You guessed right," said Avery.

"Well, I got something right today," the red echidna mumbled.

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, Knuckles lost a dumb bet and now he has to pay for our food tonight," Tails quickly explained, unable to stop himself from smiling.

"I see..." Avery paused. "Anyway, moving on."

"Uh, yeah," Ash said, a tad distracted. "So, three standard cars, each led by a van, four at the front of the prison vehicle, four at the back."

"And where do you want us in this?" asked Sonic.

"Well, as we said, you'll most likely be separated," said Simian. "The plan is for you to be in the van at the back. Unfortunately, there's not enough room for another friend of yours."

"Well, that kinda sucks," Sonic said. "Who's going to play awesome music as we march a bunch of criminals to bigger and better cells?"

"That would usually be me," Knuckles said. "But I'm guessing that I can't bring my own car with me."

"Sad, but true," Avery nodded. "You'll actually be in the second car in the front row."

"Do I get to mess with the radio?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Just when I thought that today couldn't get any fucking worse..." the echidna mumbled.

"What are the other seating plans for this convoy?" Tails asked.

"Well, glad you ask," said Avery. "You and Shadow will actually be in the van at the front row together."

"Us two?" Shadow asked. "You're sure about that?"

"What's wrong with being around me?" Tails asked.

"Well, the unfair fluffiness ratio, for one," the black and red hedgehog replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of at a disadvantage."

"Besides that?"

"Eh, nothing," Shadow smiled. "I'm just kidding, dude."

"It's honestly weird seeing you be more social," Sonic said.

"Sonic, I spend most of my time with either three other guys or a girl at home. I'm learning as I go along."

"Fair enough," the blue hedgehog conceded.

"Anything else that we should know?" Tails asked.

"You will be armed going in," said Simian. "You have guns at your own place, right?"

"Yeah," Sonic answered. "How many do we need?"

"Enough to be on the safe side," Avery said. "Our own men are going with something two handed as well as a sidearm just in case."

"We may as well do the same then," Sonic nodded.

"What about grenades?" asked Knuckles.

"Not necessary," said Avery. "Too many people in one enclosed space... it wouldn't be a good idea anyway."

"Knives?" Shadow asked.

"That might be a good idea," said Simian. "But remember: it's just in case."

"Got it."

"Anything else?" asked Sonic.

"That should about cover it," said Ash, closing the presentation down.

"So, what can we help you boys with, anyway?" Simian asked.

"Oh, Tails actually has a question for you," Knuckles said.

"What would that be?" Avery asked.

"Hang on..." Tails said, holding a hand up as he searched his phone for his dad's number. He pressed the button to call him, and waited for only a few seconds before getting his answer. "Oh, hey, mum," Tails said. "Oh, I'm good. Still alive, still with my friends. Listen, is dad there? I need to speak with him... no, I'm not in trouble... okay, thank you. I love you too."

"What's all this about?" Avery asked.

"You'll find out," said Sonic.

"Dad!" Tails said. "Let me put you on speaker!"

"All right," Amadeus replied. "Hello, anyone else on the other side there!"

"Hey, Mr. Prower!" Sonic said.

"Knuckles! What's up?"

"Eh, same old same old," the blue hedgehog said with a shrug. "But it's your son who needs you."

"Why? Is he in trouble?"

"No, I'm not," Tails said, walking around the table to Avery. "Actually, I've got something big that I want to bring up with you in regards to Green Hill Police Department."

"What would that be?" Amadeus asked.

"Well, earlier today, we got to try out those Gear Boards for the first time."

"Ah, I'd heard about that," Avery said, turning to the phone. "Oh, hello, Mr. Prower. I'm G.H.P.D.'s Commissioner Avery, your son's now former boss."

"Avery!" Amadeus smiled. "Nice to hear from you."

"So, how'd it go with the boards?" Avery asked Tails.

"It actually went pretty well," Tails nodded. "Which is why I need to ask you something, and it's also why I'm calling my dad to let him know too."

"Let me know what, son?" the fox father asked.

Tails took a breath and turned to Avery. "Well, my dad has been working on hover technology of his own. I was thinking that maybe he could come over and help along with the Gear Boards?"

"It would make sense," Sonic said. "The test runs that we had went really well, and we all had to share one board for that."

"So, you want me to let your dad come over and help out my science department?" asked Avery.

"Well, I'm not much of a scientist myself," Amadeus admitted. "But I'm one damn good mechanic. Whatever you need fixing up, I'll be more than happy to help with."

"Not much of a scientist?" Ash asked. "Didn't you help out with the implants too? That's a pretty big leap in and of itself."

"I did indeed," said Amadeus. "But what I made was only temporary. Wasn't built to last. But I'm glad that the great minds working today took my template and improved upon it."

"Hey, don't be so down on yourself, dad," Tails smiled.

Amadeus chuckled. "It's funny. Usually, I'd have to be the one to say that to you."

The yellow fox smiled more, turning to Avery. "So, can my dad come over to help?"

"Considering what he's already helped with, I don't see why not," Avery smiled.

"You mean it?" Tails asked.

"Of course," Avery nodded, smiling.

"Thank you!"

"This is great news!" said Amadeus. "So, when do I start?"

"As soon as you can get here," said Avery. "Do you have time today?"

"I should," said Amadeus. "I was working on a little something, but I can put it on hold. And besides, Rosemary can hold down the fort while I'm gone. Any parts that people will need won't take long to whip up."

"Excellent!" Avery smiled. "I look forward to seeing your work very soon. Take care."

"I will," said Amadeus. "And once again, thank you, Commissioner!"

"Please, just Avery," the brown bear smiled. "See you soon."

Amadeus hanged up, and Tails did too before hugging Avery in thanks. The Commander was taken by surprise, but patted Tails on the head before the hug broke, with the yellow fox being the first to speak.

"Thank you for letting him help," he said.

"It's no trouble."

It was then that Sonic's radio on his shoulder went off. "Warning! Trouble near the eastern side of Green Hill! We need back up! Now!"

"That's close to our base," Sonic said, turning to Avery. "We'd best take care of it."

"Go ahead," Avery nodded.

The blue hedgehog nodded back, his friends having already left and making their way to Knuckles' car. Before he could fully join them, he heard his phone going off. Looking to see Amy's face, he hesitantly left it to go to voicemail before hurrying to join his friends.

"Sorry, Amy," he said to himself. "Got something big to take care of."

* * *

 **Finally did another chapter. I'm sorry that it took so long. The only real excuse that I have is that the server is still a bit crappy for me, but it's more improved over how it used to be. I hope that you enjoyed the hover-board sequences. They were a lot of fun to write. Anyway, the next chapter won't be for a while since I've got some requests to take care of. But after that, I'll get right back on this story. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.**


	28. Object Lesson

**It feels so good to be back! Couple of things to get out the way first, though. 1). I'll be taking no more requests now after having done so many this year. Granted, they weren't arduous or tedious to write, but I want to focus more on this. Don't worry, however, as I will take more requests after this story is all done. 2). You'll more than likely have noticed that I've changed the genres around a bit, keeping the "humour" tag but switching out "sci-fi" in favour of "adventure". This story does still have elements of sci-fi, but as I've said from the start about this story, it is ultimately an action-comedy that just happens to have elements of sci-fi in it. So, with all of that cleared up and out of the way, let's get back on with the story, shall we?**

* * *

Amy sighed as she kept the phone to her ear. After a few more dialling sounds, her call to Sonic was moved to voicemail, causing her to cancel the call. She looked and saw the clock on her phone, seeing that it was almost time to go home.

It was then that one of her students, a grey dog, walked up to her. "Miss Wose?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

Amy forced a smiled. "Oh, I'm fine. Just worried about a friend of mine."

The dog nodded. "It's never good to wowwy about fwiends... I wowwy about all of my fwiends here sometimes."

"You'll still see them tomorrow," Amy smiled, leaning over to pet her student. "Do you hang out with them outside of school?"

The dog nodded again, leaning into the petting he was receiving. "Yup! My mama and papa are good fwiends with other mamas and papas here, and I get to see my fwiends here outside of kindar... kindergat..."

"Kindergarten?" Amy asked.

The dog blushed a bit. "Yeah..."

Amy smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's a hard name to keep in mind when you're only little." She stopped her petting and spoke up. "But soon, you'll be a big dog, and you'll learn all the big words and become smart!"

"Okay!" the dog smiled happily. "Dank yew, Miss Wose."

"No problem," the teacher smiled. After that, the bell rang. "All right, time to go home, everyone!"

The kids all rushed to the door, being picked up by their parents, all happy to see their families. Amy smiled at the joy that the children showed on their faces, and watched as the last two parents picked up their adorable little daughter, causing her to giggle as they headed home.

As they left, Sally was soon coming down the hall, waving to Amy. "Hi there," she smiled.

"Hey," Amy smiled back. "Fun day at work?"

"You know it," Sally confirmed. "So, you up to much?"

"Nope," Amy asked, picking her bag and coat up. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to get some coffee with me," the brown squirrel said. "Decaf, of course. I haven't forgotten about your heart problems."

"Much appreciated," Amy giggled. "Let's go."

Sally waited for Amy as she closed and locked the door to her classroom. When she did, they decided to head for the cafeteria, which was exclusive to teachers. Amy loved going there to talk to other teachers; not that she didn't love the kids in her class, but because it was rare for her to hang out with people closer to her own age.

Soon, they'd reached their destination, sitting at a laminated wooden table. Circular in shape and with four legs of steel to support it, it was large enough to seat around five teachers per table. Some other teachers that Amy knew were present at the cafeteria, but all were sat on their own at different tables.

"So," Amy said as she sat down, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Coffee first?" Sally smiled, not sitting down just yet. "Maybe a snack?"

"Croissant," said Amy. "And some cookies."

Sally nodded, walking up to the main bar of the cafeteria. She put the order in, and as she did, Amy remained seated. Many thoughts went through her mind, and to her surprise, none of them were of the jealous type in regards to Sonic. She chalked it up to Sally being an old friend of hers, and one of the only true confidants that she had when she first got into teaching.

Soon, her squirrel friend had returned, giving Amy her food and decaf coffee whilst setting her own drink and food - which was a bag of cookies and an orange flavoured chocolate bar - on the table, finally taking her seat.

"Thank you," Amy smiled as Sally handed her food to her.

"No problem," Sally said, returning the smile. She took a sip of her coffee and took a breath. "So, what have you been up to?"

Amy paused for a moment. "Well, I'm still teaching," she shrugged. "There's really not a whole lot to tell."

"You seem surprised that I asked," Sally noted.

"Well, I didn't really expect you to come out with that," Amy said. "I was thinking that maybe you'd be more jealous or that you'd be angry at me."

Sally let out a rich laugh in response, which didn't really help the pink hedgehog's unease. She calmed down from her laugh and spoke. "Amy, don't worry about it. I'm not going to try and muscle in on Sonic now that I'm back, okay? I had my chance and I blew it."

"You blew it..." Amy pondered. "Wait... is Sonic the guy that you wanted to move quick with?"

"Yeah," Sally said. "I thought that you knew that."

"You told me you had a boyfriend who you wanted to marry, you never told me which one it was!" Amy said, laughing a bit. "Why didn't you tell me that it was him?"

Sally shrugs. "It wasn't important at the time. He went off to Green Hill Academy not long after we split up, and I'm now a teacher, since I was still only in training when we were still together." She sighed. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about him before."

"It's fine," Amy smiled. "So, how come I never met him before?"

"He was busy focusing on Green Hill," said Sally, shrugging. "He didn't really have much time for anyone else, and he wanted to dedicate it all to his work as a policeman." She took another sip of her coffee, gulping it down. "I hear that he made it through."

"He did," Amy smiled. "It's weird to think. You wanted to focus more on studying, and you weren't even a teacher for a full week before leaving for your trip. How'd you get to go so easily?"

Sally shrugged. "I wish that I knew. I guess that since I wasn't there that long, they gave me a chance to regroup. That's the only hint that I could get, because I didn't really mention much about mine and Sonic's breakup except for the fact that it happened."

"I get that," Amy said. "I've only mentioned the relationship to Honey, and up until today, she was the only other person who knew. Well, her and Sonic's friends."

"How are they all, by the way?" Sally smiled. "Tails, Knuckles, and that other one. I never got his name."

"Brooding, quiet, thinks that he's cool?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, him."

"That'd be Shadow," Amy giggled. "To answer your question, they're okay. But they did run into some trouble recently..."

"How so?" Sally asked.

"Well, not to sound like a downer, but it's kind of my fault," Amy said. "I was kidnapped with some other girls by some dudes in suits whose name we never got. We were taken up to Star Light City."

"The Star Light City?" Sally asked. "The one with the low crime rate compared to other areas?"

"The very same," Amy said. "Anyway, on that night, it also happened to be the first day of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow being official police officers. But because they chased those goons and their boss up to Star Light, they sort of got-"

"Fired?" Sally asked. "On their first day?"

"Not fired, technically," Amy said. "More like demoted. They're freelance agents now."

"Bounty hunters?" Sally asked. "That's... actually, that's kinda cool," she giggled. "But it sucks that they lost their jobs."

"It gets worse and better at the same time," Amy said.

"This'll be good," the squirrel replied, crossing her arms.

"On that night when they were driving back, another car crashed into theirs," Amy said, her voice sombre.

"That's terrible..." Sally said, visibly worried. "But they're okay, right?"

"Better than okay," Amy said, hoping to ease her friend's emotions. "They were pretty banged up the next morning, but the doctors patched them up well. They're still healing a little bit, but most of their wounds are already gone."

"Anything else about the accident?" Sally asked.

"How do you mean?" Amy asked.

"Well, I heard about those things being used in medical procedures," Sally said. "Implants. Don't they help heal faster and stuff?"

"How'd you know about that if you were away?" Amy smiled. "They're fairly recent."

"I heard about some of the early stuff when I was still here," Sally smiled back. "I know that there were a lot of plans for them, and even when I was backpacking, I met some people who had to have them to help them recover from accidents, injuries, and other stuff."

"That's pretty cool," Amy smiled.

Sally nodded, eating one of her cookies. She chewed and swallowed it down before speaking. "So, could I ask another question? This one isn't Sonic related, so you don't need to worry."

Amy giggled. "Go for it."

"Well, I wanted to ask about the implants," Sally said.

"I mean, I don't have any," Amy said. "And I have no intention of getting into a car accident just to get one," she added with a sad giggle.

"Not what I meant," Sally giggled. She then hesitated, thinking about how to phrase the question in her head. "I was thinking that maybe you could get an implant for your heart condition?"

Amy, who was mid-sip with her coffee, paused before finishing her sip. "I don't know if that's possible. And if I did, would that be like a Deadpool thing? Would the combination of an implant and my heart condition make me a fourth wall breaking superhero who swears a lot?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Sally winked.

"I didn't mean to," Amy smirked. "But the swearing wouldn't be good for my teaching job. Neither would the possibility of permanent scarring just to get better."

"When it happened to Deadpool, he was thrown into some shady facility," Sally pointed out. "From what you told me about Sonic and the others, they turned out just fine after their car crash. Why not give it a shot?"

Amy sighed. "To tell you the truth... I did once. But because of how bad my heart problems are, it led to a lot of complications. None of the implants that they had were compatible with me..."

"Well, maybe they've developed one that could help?" Sally suggested.

"It is possible..." said Amy. "But the implants for Sonic and the others were picked out by specially trained doctors in a slapdash effort, and they got lucky. I went willingly to get the surgery, and nothing worked."

"If nothing worked, then how come you don't have a scar?" Sally asked.

"Oh, the medical paste that they used helped it close up without any lasting tissue damage," Amy said. "That stuff is really good. And, before you ask, they did try that on my heart as well. Before even trying with the implant. But, once again, it just didn't work." She sighed heavily, taking another sip of coffee. "I... I don't know if I'll ever try again. They tried at least ten different implants from what they had, and not a single one of those worked." She shrugged. "And besides, they're busy fixing up the people who help protect this city. What use would they have to try again for a kindergarten teacher?"

Sally reached over to touch Amy's hand. "Don't be so hard on yourself. So, they tried ten implants on you... how long ago? You didn't say."

"Actually, it was a few days after you left," Amy said.

"Ah, so the technology would have been gaining more ground at the time," Sally said. She then felt sad for her friend. "Do you think that maybe, just maybe the reasons that none of those implants were compatible were because of what the implants can do?"

"What they can do?" Amy asked. "You mean, like powers?"

"Yeah," Sally said. "Maybe they gave you basic stuff back then because that's all that they had to work with at that time. Or at the very least, it was above average."

"It is possible..." Amy said. "But those ten implants, whilst basic, were all different with what they could do. Even then, the doctors didn't know because they hadn't tested them all that much. Just enough to know that they were safe enough to heal someone." She scoffed a bit. "I guess maybe it doesn't work for people who have stuff since they're born?"

"That's possible," Sally said, letting go of Amy's hand. "So, are you going to try again?"

Amy shrugged. "I don't know. I really just don't know."

Sally nodded. "Whatever choice you make about it is up to you. Who knows? Maybe you won't even need it. I remember you telling me about how taking the medicine after having it for so long has made it better."

Amy smiled. "Thanks, Sally."

They both stood up and shared a hug, and the brown squirrel was the first to speak. "I'd better head home. Just be sure to take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will," Amy nodded. "Let's head to the bus stop together."

Sally nodded, and the two picked up their snacks, taking them with them before heading down to the bus stop. They waited patiently, and within ten minutes, the bus arrived, both girls getting on and sat next to each other.

As they sat, Amy pulled out her phone, typing in Sonic's number, dialling it. "Please pick up..."

 **Meanwhile, on the eastern side of Green Hill...**

Sonic saw his phone vibrating, and looked to see Amy calling. "This isn't a good time..." he said to himself.

"Text her or something," Knuckles said, looking outside to see the sky growing dark. "We've got business to attend to."

"Isn't texting someone trying to call you sort of tawdry?" Tails brought up.

"Not to mention that it would take too long," Shadow added.

"Look, let's just drop it and focus on the mission," Sonic said. "Everyone geared up?"

"All good to go," Tails said, the others giving affirmations of their own.

"All right, let's keep going," Sonic said. "It's getting dark, and we don't have time to waste by hanging back."

"That reminds me, how much longer is it?" said Tails.

"We're almost there," said Knuckles. "Radio reports say that it's taking place past where our base is, so we don't have to worry about a home invasion."

"And what exactly is going down?" asked Sonic.

"From what we know, it's a shootout," said Knuckles. "I guess that you guys should listen to the radio more, huh?"

"That includes me, and I'm in the front with him," Tails smiled.

"So, what do we know about the shootout?" asked Shadow.

"Someone tried to steal a trailer that was supposed to take money up to the bank," the Knuckles said.

"Oh, yeah," Sonic said. "The bank is on the east side of the city."

"They must have had it planned out," said Shadow. "The truck follows a pretty secure route to get to where it's going."

"And you know this how?" asked the blue hedgehog.

"Maria works there," Shadow said.

"And you're telling us this now?" said Tails. "She could be in trouble, dude!"

"It's a part-time job," said Shadow. "That's why I didn't say anything. She only goes there three days a week."

"It's weird to think, though," said Sonic. "Both of the ladies in Shadow's life work with money in some way."

Shadow shook his head. "Look, if she ever does get into trouble, then I'll only have myself to blame."

"You're not the only one who's going to make sure that she's safe, okay?" Knuckles said. "You don't have to handle that on your own."

"Yeah," Sonic added. "We're here for you, man."

The black and red hedgehog smiled. "Thank you. And like I said, it's a part-time job. Nothing to worry too much about."

"Is she working today?" Tails asked.

"Nope," Shadow replied. "She mostly works on weekends."

"Well, that eases my worries," said Knuckles.

Sonic hears a gunshot nearby. "What about that?"

"I can't have anything nice any more..." Knuckles said. "All right, let's find a place where this'll be safe, but close enough. I am not going to risk using this for cover when I just about got it back."

Tails nodded, picking up the radio and changing the frequency. "This is Tails of the freelancers. We're close by."

"Get here quick!" said the officer on the other side.

"Calm down," Tails said. "Is there a plan that you can come up with that can help us?"

"Fuck the plans!" said the cop. "We just need backup! I've got two men injured and bleeding bad!"

Sonic reached over and took the radio. "We'll call an ambulance."

"Who's this?" the cop asked.

"This is Sonic, leader of the freelancers," the blue hedgehog said. "Now, can you calm down and give us a plan?"

"I-I can't do that!"

"Well, you kind of have to," Shadow mumbled. "Otherwise, we're out of a job."

"You have to think of something, sir," Sonic said. "We can't really help otherwise. We need you to guide us."

The cop took a few breaths. "There... there might be a way around the back of the bad guys!"

"How many are there?" asked Tails.

"More than 10," said the cop. "A lot of them just attacked out of nowhere!"

"Will your wounded be able to make it?" asked Sonic.

"Th-They will..." the cop said, calming down a bit more now. "Just... j-just get here fast, okay? We need help!"

"Is there anything else?" asked Sonic.

"The truck drivers... they're safe with us... but please, you have to hurry!"

"We're on our way," Sonic said. "Over and out." He then turned to the others. "Looks like we have our mission set up for us."

"There's no point in driving around," said Tails. "That'll take too long."

"Well then," Knuckles said, killing the engine, "looks like we're walking."

Sonic looked outside to see that the were close enough to the buildings on the side of the road, which were mostly a bunch of small stores and such. He smiled at his friend's work before getting out of the car, the others soon following suit.

"How do we go about this?" asked Shadow. "The shops are close together, so there's no alleyways to go through without walking back."

"And most of the shops are just about closing down too," Tails said. "We'll have to be quick."

Sonic nodded. "Follow my lead, and try to stay low. If any of the bad guys out there catch us, we're fucked."

"That's putting it bluntly," said Tails, "but I get your point."

Sonic shrugged, pulling his pistol out and going around the corner of the path that they were on. He peeked his head out and saw a cop squatting down behind a police vehicle, having just fired some shots, but looking defeated as he was on his last clip of ammo.

Sonic reached for his belt and detached one of his spare clips, throwing it over to the cop, the clip landing between his feet as he was crouched. Said cop looked around for the source of his ammo, and saw the freelancers themselves, but keeping quiet thanks to Shadow placing a finger over his own lips, given a silent shushing warning, which the cop agreed to with a nod.

"All right, let's get around the corner," said Sonic.

The others nodded, and walked around and past the corner, staying low until they reached the doors of one of the shops, a liquor store. They saw that the lights were still on, albeit dimmed, which meant that the owners might have been closing up.

Sonic pushed against the handle of the glass door, and to his surprise, it opened. "Hello?" he called.

He was greeted with an elderly black man, holding a shotgun that was aimed at Sonic. "I don't know who you are, but you'd better get out of here!"

"Calm down, sir," said Tails, walking in with Knuckles and Shadow not far behind. "We're here to help."

"You guys cops?" asked the owner, lowering his shotgun. "You sure don't look like it."

"We're freelance," said Sonic. "Trust me, we won't be here long. We just need to cut through your shop."

"And what for?"

"So that we can get around the bad guys and sneak attack them," Knuckles said. "And it's hard to land a sneak attack when we're, you know, dead."

"All right," the owner said. "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Just stay low, and turn your lights off," Sonic said. "We don't know how long this will take."

"And, if you don't mind," said Tails, "we do need to ask you some stuff."

"Go ahead," the owner nodded.

"Did you see any of the attack?" Sonic asked.

"All I saw was the cops pulling back to use their cars as cover," the owner answered honestly. "They probably didn't want to run the risk of putting any of the shops in trouble."

"And what about the bad guys?" Shadow asked.

"I ain't seen them, but I've heard them," said the owner, shaking his head. "They're probably further up the street. All I've heard is guns go off and people yell."

"All right, thanks for your help," said Sonic. "We'll be out of your hair now. Sorry to bother you."

The owner nodded, reaching to unlock and open the back door of his shop for them. "I kept it locked. Just in case."

"Smart thinking," Sonic nodded. "Thanks for the help."

The owner gave one last smile before the four freelancers left through the liquor shop's backdoor, finding themselves in a small hallway that linked all the shops together. It was fairly narrow, so they had to move carefully, choosing to head to their left. They passed by a couple of shop doors before stopping.

Shadow checked around the door's frame, seeing that the lights were on. He then knocked on the door. "Hello?" he called. "Is someone in there?"

Since the back doors of shops weren't glass like the front ones, it was harder to see through for what was happening. This just made things more frustrating, since nobody could tell if anyone was going to come and let them in.

Shadow grunted. "All right, if you don't let us in, we will be forced to-"

"Who are you?!" asked a panicked female voice on the other side of the door.

Shadow was about to talk back, but Sonic placed a hand on his friend's chest, silently telling him to back away. The blue hedgehog then began speaking. "We're freelance agents. We work with the cops. And we need your help to stop what's happening right now."

"So, you won't just blast your way in?"

"If we tried that, there's a good chance that you'd be dead," Sonic said. "To my knowledge, you're an innocent civilian. I'd rather have as many innocent civilians alive as possible, and that includes you."

There was no more words, and soon, the door opened to show a Caucasian woman opening the door. Sonic and the others peeked inside to see that the shop was a laundromat, but most of the machines weren't working and some of the lights were off.

"Thank you," Sonic said.

"Just go and deal with those ass-holes out there," the woman said.

"We may need to ask you some questions first," said Sonic. "Don't worry, though. You're not in trouble."

"Well, the quicker that you ask, the quicker you'll clear those guys from the street."

"So, you've seen the attack?"

The woman shook her head. "I heard it loudly. I didn't actually look, so I didn't know what was going on. The only time I did look was when I heard the back door going off."

"And you answered it with the risk that it could have been the bad guys?" Sonic asked.

"Actually, I checked to see how many bad guys there were," the woman admitted. "I heard someone else saying how many there were, and when I heard the door, I checked to see if that same number was still out there." She paused to take a breath. "Still, even when I heard my back door, I had to be sure..."

"Well, you won't have to worry about them any more, okay?" Sonic said. "Now, where did you see them from? There's not an easy view from here."

"Oh, they shot out one of my windows by accident," the woman said. "They didn't bother attacking me, and I had to sneak from the window to the back door just in case."

"Smart thinking," Sonic said. "All right, thanks for your help."

"Just take care of them," the woman smiled. "I was trying to watch a movie before those dicks showed up."

Sonic chuckled at that, nodding to the laundromat owner before heading over to the smashed out front window with the others in tow. They all sneaked over to it, peeking around the corner to see a group of criminals wearing mostly black and balaclavas stealing money from the truck or fighting off the cops.

"All right," said Knuckles, "how do we go about this?"

"Well, there are some of the hijackers hiding in the truck itself," said Tails. "They're not getting out of here if they keep fighting, though."

"And there's no cops around the back to stop them," Shadow said. "We should look out for a getaway car."

"I'm surprised that the truck is still upright," said Sonic. "Maybe it'd be too easy for them to just leave?"

"Too much force blocking their path, it looks like," said Tails. "Even without cops to attack from behind, they seem to be focused on what's in front of them."

"That'll help us a lot," Sonic said. "Let's start with the truck, since it's closest." He turned to Shadow. "Think you can teleport into it?"

"I can only see a corner of it, but it should be enough," Shadow said. "If there's any bad guys in there, I'll take them out."

"Sounds good," Sonic said. "We'll distract the others."

"No bother," said Shadow. "That'd draw too much attention to us."

"Not to mention that we don't really have any good cover," Knuckles complained.

"We'll wait for Shadow to take out the dudes in the truck, then we'll take it and make it into our own cover," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

"You do know where that thing has to go, right?" Tails pointed out.

Sonic nodded. "I do. But for one thing, it's armour. And secondly, it's the only chance that we've got." He turned back to Shadow. "We'll wait for you."

"I was wondering when you'd stop flapping your gums," the black and red hedgehog smirked.

He moved up close to the front door of the laundromat, but stayed low. He got a clearer view of the back of the truck, but not enough to see how many people were in there. He did take note of some sports bags stuffed with the money that had already been taken so far. He shook that off and closed his eyes as he focused on the back of the truck. As he concentrated, he felt his muscles strain slightly as he willed himself to teleport, finally opening his eyes. When he did, he disappeared with a small flash of energy, feeling himself reappear onto solid metal.

He noticed that he must have landed silently if the three inside the large truck not noticing him were anything to go by. He gave a small knock on the side of the truck, his knuckles clanging against the metal and getting their attention.

"Excuse me, is this the ferry to Station Square?" he grinned.

Neither of the three criminals spoke, the first moving quickly to attack Shadow. He swung the butt of his gun at the hedgehog, but Shadow made a small sidestep, caught the end of the weapon, and pushed his arms to the right, causing a loud clang and bashing the bad guy's fingers against the metal. As he screamed in pain, he still tried fighting back, but Shadow ducked and rolled under him, grabbing him from behind and locking his arms up.

Shadow then moved forwards, pressing his body weight against the robber from behind as he smashed his head against the metal of the truck, causing another loud clang before pulling away. The bad guy fell slack from the impact, his body soon turning limp and landing against the floor of the truck, unconscious and slightly bloodied, but breathing.

One of the remaining two robbers moved, but Shadow managed to not only dodge, but pull a quick teleport out of nowhere, appearing near the front of the truck. He was a bit taken aback, but turned around in time to see the two bad guys ganging up on him. Given how much room there was in the truck, Shadow managed to dodge both of their strikes, grabbing the one on the left and bringing him up with him.

Shadow made sure that they kept their arms locked, and the bad guy swung at him, but he ducked under it and answered with a kick to the gut. He heard a grunt of anger as the second man moved to attack him, but Shadow flipped around and landed a light back-flip kick, flipping back over the bad guy whose arm he still had locked with his own.

"So, are you two making this easy on purpose, or..."

Shadow's sentence was cut off when the second man moved to attack him. Shadow smirked and rolled back, kicking the first man towards the second one, causing them to collide headfirst, their noggins bashing hard off of each other and dazing them both. Taking advantage, Shadow quickly moved forwards, pulling the one closest to him and throwing him behind him.

Shadow focused his attention easier on the other man this way, and kicked him in the gut, easily dodging a sloppy counter hay-maker. Shadow got behind the second man before locking his right arm under his chin and bringing his left arm up, connecting his right hand to his left bicep. After a few moments, the dazed criminal fell asleep, and Shadow laid him on the ground.

The last man was still dazed, and as he walked backwards, he fell over the unconscious body of the first man who Shadow beat. The impact of falling backwards caused the man's head to bounce off the floor of the truck. Shadow went over quickly to check that he was still breathing, and was somewhat relieved that he was, even checking the back of the man's head for any injuries after taking off his balaclava, only seeing a small bruise.

"All right," the black and red hedgehog said to himself, "that takes care of that." He then peeked out of the back of the truck and waved a hand towards himself.

"That's the signal," said Sonic.

"The signal that you didn't bring up with him but are just assuming is a signal?" Knuckles asked.

"Yep, that signal," Sonic replied.

"Ah, good. Just making sure."

They all then carefully moved out, but then noticed the bad guys using their cover. They saw a couple of other cop cars on the bad guys' side, with Sonic making the assumption in his head that they must have also been stolen, even if just temporarily.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles soon found their way around, avoiding all the gunfire and relatively free from any lines of sight that were on them. They met back with Shadow, who was busy setting the unconscious bodies aside so that his friends could get on the truck easier.

"So, what's the plan from here?" Shadow asked.

Sonic looked around. "We need to find a way to drive this thing backwards. We can't do that from this part of the truck, and using the cover as it is might be a bad idea."

Knuckles leaned against the side of the truck and pushed it slightly, smiling when he felt it budge just a tiny bit. "Or we could just push this until it becomes good enough cover for us."

"It would be easier if we all did it," said Tails. He spun his tails around and flew up high, reaching a higher part of the truck's container and beginning to push. "If I start from here, it should balance out the weight easily."

"All right," Sonic said, he and Shadow joining the others. "1... 2... 3..."

But before he could tell them all to push, he heard a warbled voice come through on a radio. He looked over at the bodies that Shadow had knocked out, and saw one of them with a radio clipped to his shoulder. He picked it up as it spoke.

"We've got to get the fuck out of here! Start the truck!"

"You got it," Sonic smiled.

"Who is this?" the voice asked. "You don't sound like one of ours!"

"That's because I'm not. I'm freelance, and I've got some friends with me. Now, let me ask you, do you know what a freelance agent does?"

"You're just a glorified cop to me. Get the fuck out of my truck before you get hurt."

"Wrong answer," Sonic said. "I'll explain. See, being a freelance agent means that we get to do whatever we damn well please. Like, I don't know, killing your friends in the truck? Taking that money back to where it belongs? Stopping you and the rest of the ass-hole crew? I could go on."

"You don't scare me," the voice said. "I'm coming back to that truck, and I'm going to kill you myself."

"One on four doesn't seem fair on you," Sonic said.

He was silenced when the truck began moving, and the voice spoke again. But this time, it wasn't through the radio, but from the front of the truck. "You should really pay more attention to your surroundings!"

"How did we not hear that?" asked Knuckles.

"Never mind," said Sonic. "We've got to stop this truck."

There was another loud shake, and the truck starting gaining speed. The doors at the back of the truck were still open, and Sonic smiled as he saw this. He gestured to his friends, who also chuckled as they spotted it.

"So, what's the plan?" Knuckles asked.

"One of us finds a way to get to the top of the truck," Sonic said. "Tails might be our best bet."

"I'll give it a shot," Tails said.

"Be quick about it," Sonic warned. "We've still got cops to help back there."

The yellow fox nodded, quickly moving to the back of the truck. Since the doors were still open, it was no trouble for him to get to where he needed to go. But he was still hesitant, looking around and then looking at the ground, seeing the lines in the road start to pass.

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.

"We might need to slow this down somehow!" Tails called.

"I'm on it!" Knuckles said. He walked over to the back of the truck, crouched down, raising one of his fists, and pointed it at the road. "All right... I've got to focus this..."

He then cocked his fist back before plunging it down, feeling his closed hand tearing through the solid stone of the road. He used his other hand to hold his arm in place as his right fist was practically dragged through the road, creating an annoying grinding sound and causing some rocks to fly in the red echidna's face. Still, he held onto it, feeling the truck slow down.

"Now's your chance!" Knuckles said.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Tails said.

His tails spun around quickly, and using the truck's slowing down to his advantage, he flew out of the back of the large armoured vehicle. He kept flying a fair distance ahead so that he was far away enough to make the ascension above the truck. He found his chance when the truck managed to turn around and face the right way, and Tails then turned around and spun upwards, pirouetting through the air and landing on top of the truck.

He closed his arms over his head as he felt the wind begin to hit him, but he carried on with his mission. He couldn't risk flying where he was, so he had to risk walking across the top of the truck instead. He took careful strides as he walked, not wanting to go too slow, but knowing that he couldn't go overly fast. His steps were light enough that he could flow with the truck, but with a turn coming up soon, he knew that he had to move quickly now.

"Ah, fuck it..." he mumbled to himself. He starting picking up the pace now, getting on top of the main car of the truck. He leaned his head down, getting an upside down view of the side of the driver's covered face. Tails reached a hand to knock on the window.

The robber driving the truck didn't hesitate to pull out his gun and fire a shot at the window, the bullet smashing through the glass, but Tails knew that it was coming, his body moving back up in time to avoid being hit by both bullet and glass. The two-tailed fox then put his hands on top of the edge where the broken window was, turning his body in midair and flipping through the window, planting both feet into the driver's side.

The driver's free hand was still on his gun, but he couldn't bring it up in time to stop the blow. He screamed a bit in pain as he was struck, and tried to keep his focus on the road. This got harder for him to do as Tails pulled his gun from his pocket, pressing the muzzle against the driver's head.

"Listen," Tails said. "Either you drop your gun and take us back to that fight, or I blow your damn head off and do it myself."

"Y-Yeah, sure..." the criminal said. He subtly dropped his gun to his left, which was away from Tails. "Whatever you say..."

"Cute," Tails smiled. "Drop the gun on this side, please. "In fact, just hand it to me."

The robber grunted in frustration, reaching to grab the gun and give it to Tails. The yellow fox smiled, aiming both guns now at the bad guy. Despite wearing a mask to cover his face, the robber's expression of sadness could clearly be seen as he drove back to where the fight was happening.

The drive was silent, and didn't take too long as they weren't too far away from the scene of the gunfight itself. The truck slowed to a crawl as they reached where they were earlier, and Tails kept both guns on the robber.

"You're going to get out of this car slowly, okay?" he said.

The robber gave a small nod, killing the engine of the truck and leaving through the window. Tails followed him, keeping his guns focused on the bad guy. Tails smiled when he heard the back doors of the truck clang open, with Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles joining their two-tailed friend on the side of the truck.

"Good work, man," Sonic smiled.

"So, where do we go from here?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, it'd be pointless to offer this guy up as a trade," Sonic said. "So, main game plan is either kill him or just knock him out and throw him into the back of the truck with the rest."

"I choose the latter," Tails said.

"Seconded," Knuckles agreed.

"Same here," Shadow said, raising his hand a bit.

"Then it's unanimous," Sonic smiled. "Tails, if you wouldn't mind."

The robber grinned a bit, shrugging. "Well, shit..."

Tails shrugged his own shoulders as well, whipping the butts of both guns at the back of the robber's head, knocking him out cold. Shadow and Knuckles picked up his body and dragged it back to the truck as Sonic and Tails stayed put.

"So, what's the next part of the plan?" Tails asked. "All out attack?"

"The fact that you suggested that makes me wonder how long you've been around Knuckles," Sonic smirked.

Tails shrugged. "What can I say? I have violent tendencies. I mean, did you see me knock that douche-bag out?"

"That was pretty violent," Sonic nodded. "Anyway, back to the plan."

"Right," Tails nodded as Knuckles and Shadow returned.

"We can't just go all out, and our initial plan of turning the truck for cover is out the window," Sonic said. "We might need to use our grenades."

Tails nodded. "Mitigates casualties, makes it easier on us, and we know how to use them." He chuckled. "Good thing we remembered them."

"Well, most of the time we don't need them," Sonic said. "But it's probably better and safer if we take them with us more often from now on."

Tails smiled, turning to Shadow and Knuckles. "You two get all that?"

"Something about grenades, bringing them with us, and having fewer dead people," Knuckles said. "Did I get all that?"

"Eh, the bullet points version is just as good as anything," the yellow fox smiled.

"So, what's phase one?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic unlatched a grenade from his belt, setting it to flash bang mode. "We'll split up into two different teams of two. One team will stay on this side of the truck, and the others will walk around to clear out any bad guys on the opposite side."

"Who's with who?" Shadow asked.

"Me and Knuckles will take the other side," Sonic said. "You and Tails stay here and clear this one."

"Understood," Shadow said, turning to Tails. "Ready to go, fuzzy?"

"Says Captain Chest Hair," Tails smirked.

Sonic chuckled. "All right, let's split and get this over with."

The others nodded as Sonic took off with Knuckles, going up and around the back of the truck, seeing more bad guys on their side than they'd seen on the previous one. Regardless, Sonic kept his grenade in his hands, but handed it to Knuckles.

"Why me?" the red echidna asked.

"You've got a better throwing arm," Sonic reasoned.

"Fair enough," Knuckles replied. He lifted his arm and tossed the grenade into the group of men firing at the cops, and one of said men turned when they heard a clicking next to them, seeing Knuckles and Sonic, who waved.

"WE-ARRGH!""

The bad guy's sentence was cut short as the grenade's flash went off, temporarily blinding him and all of the men surrounding him. Sonic and Knuckles moved quickly, with Sonic using his speed to get them there quicker. They moved to attack the bad guys, who were still stunned from the grenade despite the flash now wearing off.

"I still can't see shit!" said one of them, covering his face with his arms.

"Then maybe try moving your arms out of your face?" Sonic suggested.

"Oh, thanks," the bad guy said, seeing Knuckles in front of him.

"No problem," Sonic smiled as Knuckles cocked a fist back. He slammed it right into the bad guy's face and knocked him out with one shot.

"Get 'em!" said one of the other criminals.

Sonic and Knuckles stayed where they were, knowing that a fist fight was going to come sooner rather than later. Still, the two stood back to back as the baddies teemed around them, moving to attack all at once, only for Sonic and Knuckles to split and roll away.

"Over here!" Sonic said. One of the robbers swung for him, but Sonic ducked under it and delivered a sharp knee to his ribs. The man doubled over, and Sonic lifted his leg to axe kick the bad guy's head against the ground, knocking him out.

Knuckles was against two at once, both on either side of him. One moved to attack from his left, and just after Knuckles dodged, he felt a knee hit the small of his back. Knuckles moved forward from the blow, softening its impact and more than surprised at how little it hurt in the first place. But he shook it off, ducking under a massive left hook from one of the bad guys and slipping under to deliver a brutal right uppercut, knocking the man out in one blow.

Knuckles shook his hand, not out of pain, but out of confidence. "It almost hurts to be this good."

"Grah!"

Knuckles turned and dodged a knife swiping at his head, turning with the slashes to avoid them before managing to block one of the strikes. The robber caught on and dropped the knife to his other hand, but Knuckles brought up his own hand to grab the blade, grimacing as he did so. He headbutted the hijacker, breaking his nose and causing blood to spurt out. Knuckles then dropped the knife before punching the man in the gut, causing him to gasp for breath, landing on his knees. Knuckles landed one more punch, this one to the jaw, and knocked him senseless.

Sonic dodged a punch coming from behind, hearing the man behind him long before he reached him. Somewhat to Sonic's surprise, his speed kicked in, and he found himself right behind the bad guy. Sonic shrugged and delivered a boot to the man's back, knocking him towards Knuckles, who met him with a simple straight right to clean his clock.

"Guess I'm getting better with these implants," Knuckles smiled.

It was then that the last of the bad guys was heard speaking into his radio. "Hear that, guys? These dudes have cyber parts! We've got to be- urgh!"

Knuckles picked the man up by his throat, but just shrugged and put him back down. The bad guy looked relieved for a moment, but that relief soon turned to unconsciousness following a headbutt from Knuckles.

"Nice going there," Sonic smiled.

Knuckles shrugged, then sighed. "That's all of them from this side."

"What do you think the guy was going to say before you caught him?" Sonic asked.

"It can't be anything good if they know that we have implants," Knuckles said. "Let's go check on the others."

Sonic nodded, but reached for his shoulder mic. "We're halfway done here. You want to make a push and help us?"

"We'd best wait on an ambulance," said an officer on the other side. "We're all pretty hurt in some capacity. Some more than others..."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "Understood. We'll let you know when it's all clear. Over and out."

He turned his mic off, then nodded to Knuckles. The two rushed around the side of the truck, seeing Tails and Shadow dealing with fewer bad guys than they had to, but it was still a fair few. Most of them were already out cold, and there were three left.

One of them made a move for Tails from behind, but the two-tailed fox managed to get around the attack and used his his tails to trip the bad guy up, causing him to fall into a hard elbow from Shadow, sending him back. Tails jumped and landed a side kick to the bad guy's back, and Shadow finished it with a sharp palm strike to his face.

The last two didn't fair much better. One went for Shadow's side, but the black and red hedgehog teleported in midair behind him, spinning for a reverse kick to knock him down, but not out. Tails was about to move, but was grabbed from behind by the last man standing. This didn't last long, as Tails stepped on the man's foot to stun him for a split second, then drove his elbows backwards to keep him away.

Shadow landed from his teleport, only to teleport again, this time between Tails and the robber who tried to hurt him. Tails smiled as he spun his tails around, starting to fly up, with Shadow clinging on to his friend by the legs. Tails then spun around in place as Shadow stretched his own legs out, kicking one of the two remaining men hard across the jaw, enough to knock him down.

Shadow delivered a similar kick to the second man, but only wobbled him, not knocking him out. It was then that he tugged subtly on Tails' leg, and the yellow fox got the idea and spun faster as Shadow loosened his grip on his friend. Shadow waited for the right time, then let go, planting both feet into the man he had stumbled as Tails landed on his feet, moving to trip up the other man as he rose.

Shadow landed back on his feet after his stomp attack knocked his man down, and he delivered a swift knee to his head as he rose, catching him on the temple and causing him to flop backwards limply. Tails, meanwhile, mounted the man that he tripped up and rained down punches on his unprotected face, landing enough to knock him out. He was helped to his feet by Shadow, and the two smiled at each other.

"That was pretty brutal," Shadow smiled.

Tails shrugged, panting. "The dude was tough."

"You're lucky that you beat him up normally," said Sonic.

"How come?" Tails asked.

"One of the guys that we had to deal with may or may not have found out that we have cybernetic implants," Knuckles shrugged.

"Was the reason that he found out because you said it?" Shadow asked.

"Maybe..." Knuckles said, looking away.

"Look, we don't know what these guys were up to, but whatever plans they had are done now," said Sonic.

"True," Tails nodded. "But, don't you think that things seem kind of off?"

"Like, this was a setup?" Sonic asked.

"Something like that," Tails said.

Knuckles nodded. "I agree, but we can't talk about that stuff here. The cops might catch on to what we're doing."

"I find it weird that we're scared of telling the cops this," Shadow chuckled.

"Well, it was Sonic's idea," Knuckles pointed out.

"And you all said yes to it," Sonic reminded. "But you're right. We can't do anything here. Let's try tomorrow and see if we can talk to any of them."

"Helps that they're all being taken to the same place," Tails said.

"That reminds me," Sonic said, reaching for his shoulder mic. "We're all done here. You all good?"

"We're good," said the cop. "You call that ambulance yet?"

"Sorry," Sonic said, a bit sheepish. "We were trying to get rid of the bad guys first."

"Don't worry about it," the cop said with a chuckle. "I took care of it. It'll be here soon. I figured that you'd be too busy, so I helped out."

"Thanks."

"Any casualties?"

"Eh, a little bit of damage to the truck, but no fatalities," Sonic said. "What about your side?"

"A couple of bad injuries and some vehicle damage, but nothing that can't be buffed out."

"Good thing that G.H.P.D. is good when it comes to vehicles."

"True!" the cope said with a rich laugh. "All right, we'll see you on our end. Over and out."

Sonic hanged up, and smiled when he saw some of the less injured cops get in their cars, driving them up to meet Sonic and his friends. After a few minutes, all of the unconscious criminals were in G.H.P.D. vehicles, ready to be taken to the department building.

As the police cars drove off, Sonic smiled. "I hope that they have enough room for then all."

"Eh, they might wind up sharing," Knuckles shrugged. "Besides, the transfer is soon. They'll have more room when they get there."

Sonic was about to reply, but was cut off when his phone went off. He saw that it was Amy, and winced a bit as he answered it, hoping that she wasn't mad. "Hello?"

"Sonic! Oh, my god! I was so worried about you!" Amy said, her voice relieved.

"I'm fine," Sonic said. "Sorry for not replying. We just finished a pretty big mission."

"Is everyone all right?" Amy asked, showing her concern not just for her boyfriend, but for his friends.

"We're all okay," Sonic said. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"Good," Amy said, a smile of relief washing over her voice.

"So, what were you calling for earlier?"

"Oh, I actually have some pretty big news," Amy said. "Your ex? Sally? She's back in town."

"And you know this how?"

"Because she works at the same school as me," Amy answered.

"Huh." Sonic cleared his throat. "Um... is she okay?"

"She's fine," Amy smiled, sensing Sonic's worry. "But right now isn't the best time to talk about it. Do you have time tomorrow?"

"We've got something small to take care of, but the other guys can handle it," Sonic said. "What time tomorrow?"

"About lunchtime?" Amy said. "I'll call up a taxi for tomorrow and come over to visit."

"Sounds good," Sonic smiled. "I'll see you then."

"You too," Amy said. "Bye." She then hanged up.

Sonic did the same, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I can't fucking believe it..."

"What's up?" asked Tails.

"Sally's back in town," Sonic said.

"Sally?" Knuckles asked. "Sally, the cute squirrel ex-girlfriend who tried to speed things up too much? That Sally?"

"I've only ever told you about one Sally in my lifetime," Sonic said.

"So, how did Amy come across her?" Tails asked.

"Apparently, Sally teaches at the same school as Amy," Sonic shrugged. "I don't know anything beyond that, but I'm going to find out tomorrow."

"We need to find out stuff from those guys that we just stopped too," Shadow reminded.

Sonic nodded. "I know. Looks like you guys might have to take the reigns on that one."

"You're not coming with us?" Tails asked. "I'm sorry, but getting vital information out of bad guys to find someone else seems a bit more important."

Sonic nodded again. "I know. I'll come with you, but we've got to wake up early. Hopefully, we can get it done before lunchtime. That's when me and Amy are supposed to meet."

"Jade Mountain?" Knuckles asked.

"Seems like the best place," the blue hedgehog shrugged. "And, before you ask, yes, I'll bring you guys something back."

"You owe us for having to wake us up early," Knuckles jibed.

"I know," Sonic smiled. "Now, let's head home, shall we?"

The others nodded in agreement, all heading past their former battlefield to head back to Knuckles' car. On their way back, an ambulance arrived, its lights whirring and siren blaring as it caught up to those wounded. Sonic even took notice of the drivers of the truck full of money managing to get back to the vehicle, taking it with them.

Soon, the four got into their car, wasting no time in driving back home. It took about fifteen minutes to get back to their headquarters, since it wasn't that far away. Knuckles found a place to park his car, and they all got out, heading inside. They decided to forego any showering until the next morning, since the fight did tire them out. So, they decided to head to their bedrooms, with Sonic checking his phone and seeing Amy's missed calls from earlier.

"Well, tomorrow is certainly going to be a lot of fun..." he said drily. He then set his alarm for earlier than usual before setting his phone on his bedside table, closing his emerald green eyes, and going to sleep.

 **Meanwhile, in Westopolis...**

Nack was in the back of his now more polished car, and he remained silent as his henchmen drove him to the apartment complex that was mentioned earlier. But, unlike most other times, Nack had a black baseball bat with him, and his cronies brought a knife and a lead pipe, as well as some handguns just in case.

"We're here," said the driver.

"You do remember that Lara told you not to bother with this, right?" asked the other henchman.

"I do," Nack nodded, readjusting the gloves on his hands. "But I feel like these cunts are clientele that she can risk losing. I don't care how much they paid; they don't have the right to treat anybody like that."

"That's strangely heroic of you."

"I prefer business-savvy," Nack shrugged. "If Lara wants to keep the best girls, then she needs the best kind of clientele. Men like these are no different to men like us when it comes to what we want from hookers; pussy and a good time fucking it." He then sighed. "But in terms of how to handle said pussy, that is where a line must be drawn. A business like that isn't something to abuse so much."

"You seem to be doing it yourself," said one of the henchmen.

"Only from a business perspective," said Nack. "I'd never hurt any of Lara's girls before, and I won't start now. I also don't plan on letting others, especially the vile pieces of refuse that we're about to talk to, abuse Lara's girls like that."

"So, what is the plan?" asked the driver.

"In simple terms, the plan is to go in there and beat the shit out of the ass-holes who abused Lara's girl," said Nack. "But in not so simple terms, the plan is to teach them a lesson. One can only hope that men like these have the capacity to learn from their mistakes." He looked down at his bat, nodding. "Let's go."

The others nodded. All three of them hid their weapons upon their person before getting out of the car after the driver killed the engine. They looked at the apartment complex, seeing one of the lights still on this late at night, and seeing several shadows move back and forth, with some drinking beer every now and then.

The three walked up to the entrance of the complex, coming to a small shutter with a speaker on the side. There were buttons attached, with some that would have a faint glow if that apartment was still occupied or any electricity was still in use. Since who Nack was looking for was on a higher floor, he pressed that button. A grumbling voice spoke.

"Who is it?" the voice asked, gruff and slurring from the beers that he had drunk.

"My name is Nack. I'm here to talk to someone about a girl named Lisa."

"What does that bitch want this time?" the voice asked.

Nack bit back a sigh and smiled as best as he could. "She wants to apologise for her recent behaviour," he lied, hoping that the drunken man would buy it.

"She there with you?" the voice asked. "Any cops?"

"No and no," Nack answered. "She asked me to speak on her behalf, since she was afraid of coming on her own."

"All right... but make it quick, okay?" the man said. The speaker buzzed and the shutter opened.

Nack grinned, taking his finger off the speaker. "Trust me, I don't intend to be here any longer than I need to be."

He then walked up to the building proper where the Mobians were, one of them passing by to look out the window, beer in hand. He gave a brief, albeit sloppy, wave, and went down to the door of his section of the building, opening it as Nack and his men approached.

"What's a Mobian want to do with a human girls?" he asked, unaware of his mispronunciation.

"You're drunk, so I'll forgive that," Nack smiled. "And you heard already what I want to talk about. Just let me in to talk to the man upstairs, and I'll be in and out quickly."

"You got it," the drunkard replied, hiccuping near the end of his sentence.

He turned around and made a hand gesture to follow him up the stairs. His walk was wobbly as he led Nack and his henchmen to their destination, but he managed to take them up to the third and final floor with relative ease, pushing the already open door out.

"They're here!" he said loudly, unaware of his volume.

Nack looked around, seeing how many of them there were, counting a total of five. One of them, a warthog with red skin, looked up from his position on his couch and saw the purple weasel. He stood up from where he was, walking over to Nack, his breathing low enough to push out waves of the smell of the booze that he'd been drinking.

Nack did his best to keep his smile hidden. "You must be Lisa's stepfather?"

"What does she want from me this time?" the warthog asked.

"Oh, she wanted me to apologise."

"What for?"

Nack breathed in slowly, knowing that he'd have to play this man's game. "Well, you know how women can be if they don't learn their place, right?"

"Right," the warthog chuckled. "See, I like people like you. People who get it."

"Even when that comes to your stepdaughter?" Nack asked.

"Just leave that little slut out of it, okay?" the warthog said. "If she knew her place, I wouldn't have had to hurt her."

Nack's teeth clenched under his closed mouth before he opened it again. "What's your name?"

"Devin."

"Well, Devin, you know that I'm here because I have a message from your stepdaughter, correct?" Nack asked, walking closer.

"I do. She said that she wanted to apologise, right? What for, exactly?"

"That she didn't tell me. Did she do anything bad?"

"Besides join that fucking brothel and prove to be the little whore that she really is?" Devin spat.

"Well, was that bad enough to warrant what was essentially a gang rape on the poor girl?" Nack replied, his arm slowly moving behind him to reach the baseball bat tucked behind his back.

"It wasn't rape," Devin defended. "We paid."

"No, you paid for you and your friends to have sex with that poor girl," said Nack.

"What makes you call a bitch like that poor girl?"

Nack stepped closer, leaning his head up to whisper in Devin's ear. "The fact that she has a worthless piece of shit like you as a stepfather." Nack then stepped back, pulling his baseball bat out. "And I am going to give you a little bit of education as to what happens when you fuck with something that doesn't belong to you."

Before Devin could speak, one of Nack's henchmen pulled out his handgun and shot the warthog in the leg, downing him instantly. Two of the four men moved quickly, but were stumbling terribly given their earlier alcohol consumption. Nack's henchmen grabbed both men, causing them to headbutt each other hard, the impact causing them both to fall unconscious.

One of the two remaining drunks moved to attack Nack, but he ducked and swung his bat at their temple, the impact causing them to go limp instantly. The last tried to attack Nack from behind, but his drunken stumbling gave away his position, so Nack turned and grabbed the last Mobian, throwing him to his henchmen. They threw him down hard onto the ground, stomping on his head several times before he too went to sleep.

Devin, on his back and still clutching his leg, looked at his fallen friends, and saw a broken glass bottle next to him, dropped during one of the attacks. He went to reach it, but a well-dressed foot stepped on his hand, digging the heel in until bones were heard snapping. The warthog grunted as Nack lifted his shoe once more for another hard stomp.

"Now, I'm going to put this simply," said Nack. "You are going to apologise to Lisa for doing what you did to her. You are going to apologise to Lara for hurting one of her girls. And finally, and I can't stress this enough, you are never going back to Lara's brothel. Ever."

Devi shook his head. "What's it matter to you? It's a glorified whorehouse... I can do whatever the fuck I want."

Nack grinned and let out a small puff of air before swinging his bat down on Devin's genitals, causing a loud screech from the warthog. As Devin tried to recover, Nack knelt down again. "I'm sorry. What did you just say?"

"I said that I can do whatever I want!" Devin said. "She's my stepdaughter. She lives under my roof, she follows my rules!"

"And what would her mother think if she knew about this?" Nack asked, turning to his henchmen and jerking his head over to himself.

"Her mother knows, and she doesn't give a shit about her daughter being a whore," said Devin. "I do care, and I punish her for her behaviour."

"Is that so?" Nack asked as his men lifted and separated the warthog's legs. "So tell me," Nack continued, "if it's right for you to punish her for her behaviour because of what she chose for a career even though you're not related, is it not right for me to do the same to you?"

"I'm not like you," Devin said.

"That's true," Nack nodded. "Mostly because in five minutes, I'll still have my dick and balls attached to me."

Before Devin could speak, he felt a knife cutting his trousers open. The warthog looked down to see Nack's henchmen taking off his bottoms, about to do the same with his boxers before he kicked at them.

"Get the fuck off of me!" he screamed.

Nack turned his bat upside down and dug the top end into Devin's chest, keeping pressure on it. "The less that you struggle, the less that this'll hurt..."

"No!" Devin begged, still yelling. His groans of pain only increased when he felt his boxers practically being ripped off, and then the edge of a knife pressed against his testicles. "Please! PLEASE! DON'T DO IT!"

Nack delivered a hard kick across Devin's face before leaning down again. "Now, you listen to me, you worthless speck of piss. You are going to apologise to Lisa and Lara. And you're never going back to Lara's brothel for any of her other girls. In fact, if you even think about going there again, I'll strip you and take away your manhood myself." Nack took his bat from the warthog's chest, placing it near his head. "I run this fucking city, and when people like me run a city like this, then dregs like you shut the fuck up and listen when people like me are talking. Do you understand me?"

"I DO! PLEASE DON'T DO IT! I'LL LEAVE THOSE GIRLS ALONE, I SWEAR!"

Nack nodded, turning to his henchmen. They left the man half-naked still, but got up and went to Nack. The purple weasel grinned. "Good." He then reared his bat from its position and delivered a hard shot to the side of Devin's head, knocking him out cold. "We're done here. Let's clean up and leave."

The two henchmen nodded. They began by placing the unconscious bodies near the couch, making sure that beers were in their hands. It helped that one of them threw up in their sleep, making the setup look more believable. They went about cleaning any injuries as best as they could, since it was mostly with blunt weapons.

The main problem would be the bullet wound in Devin's leg. The henchman with the knife decided to use his weapon to pick the bullet out of the warthog's injured limb before cleaning the wound up. He didn't stitch it up, instead choosing to use one of the broken beer bottles as a fake weapon.

After the bodies were taken care of, Nack made sure that the lights and TV were left on. "If these guys believe that they were too drunk to function, they'll probably assume that they forgot to turn off the TV."

Both henchmen nodded, and soon they followed their boss downstairs and out of the building. Within little time, they'd made it back past the shutter and into the car. Without a word needing to be said, the driver started the car, and they soon found themselves heading back home.

"This'll be tough to explain to Lara," said the driver.

"Not really," said Nack. "Ass-hole brings gang of friends to have forced sex with his stepdaughter, same ass-hole and gang of friends get beaten up and learn a lesson." He sighed. "I'll tell Lara everything herself tomorrow. I owe her that much."

"And you did keep within the realm of not killing them," said the passenger.

Nack nodded. "True. I might have cost her a client, but I certainly didn't cost her one worth remembering." He chuckled. "Let's go home."

And so they did, soon arriving home and not wasting any time in getting to bed due to how late it was. Nack slept with a smile as he thought about how much progress he'd made that day, and his smile widened as he waited for the big day to come very soon.

* * *

 **And there it is! Finally got a new one up. So, yeah. If the length of this chapter doesn't tell you how seriously I'm taking the story, I don't know what will. I hope that you all enjoyed it, and that it was worth the wait. I guess there's nothing else to say except for take care, and stay tuned.**


	29. Something To Discuss

Sonic woke to his phone alarm sounding off, yawning and stretching. He smiled when he heard the other three complaining at also having to wake up this early. Sonic grinned and quickly got out of his bed, speaking as he moved to the end of the corridor.

"I'm heading in the shower first!" he said.

"Want some breakfast for when you get out?" asked Tails' voice.

"Just some cereal," Sonic said. "A chocolatey type of cereal, if it's not too much hassle."

"I can't promise that it won't be," Tails replied. "See you when you get out of the shower."

Sonic gave a word of confirmation as he went for his shower, thinking that he'd get some new clothes on for after he was finished. He turned the shower on, waiting for the water to warm up. After it did, he stripped off his boxers and shirt from last night and went into the shower.

As he started cleaning himself, he took a deep breath, thinking back to last night. He made a small mental note about how well he and the others had used his powers without straining themselves too much, and would put that aside in his head for later on.

Soon, he was all finished, heading to his bedroom to get dressed in new clothes. He went for a dark blue pair of boxers, a white sporty tank top with black around the collar and sleeves, black jeans, and black striped trainers. He turned to go for the stairs, but instead decided to slide down the pole, landing perfectly.

"Man, that's fun," he said to himself as he headed for the kitchen. "All right, shower's free," he said as he entered the kitchen. The other three made a mad dash to get upstairs for their shower, and he laughed a bit at that. He then went over to his cereal, smiling. "Thanks, Tails!"

"No problem!" the yellow fox replied. "Get out of the way, Knuckles! I need a shower!"

"We all do!" Knuckles replied. "You know how long it takes to clean these dreads?"

"Even my chest fur is an issue!" Shadow threw in.

Sonic shook his head as they kept arguing, enjoying his chocolatey cereal and a cup of coffee, also courtesy of Tails. Soon, his phone went off, and he picked it from his jeans pocket. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sonic," Amy said, her voice sounding tired. "Bit surprised that you picked up this early."

"I had to get up early too," Sonic replied with a shrug. "Got to go down to the department and have a talk with the ass-holes that we put away last night."

"Is this for you or because you were told to?" Amy asked.

"This is for us," Sonic said. "By us, I mean myself, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails."

"Leaving me out of it, huh?"

"Sorry," Sonic smirked. "That's confidential information."

"Ooh, you're sexy when you get all authoritative," Amy giggled. "Anyway, just called to check in and see if you were okay."

"It's a bit early for me to tell," Sonic said. "I had a hot shower, and I've just had a bit of coffee, and I'm still not sure that I'm awake."

"I just woke up and am in my underwear..." Amy said sultrily.

"And I'm awake," Sonic said, laughing.

Amy laughed too. "I wanted to apologise if last night felt a bit... I dunno, out of place? I can't think of the right words to say here."

Sonic smiled. "It's fine. I get that you want to talk this over."

"It's just that you haven't spoken too highly of Sally," Amy added.

Sonic nodded. "You should have seen me after we broke up. I couldn't stand her. Good thing I was at the academy and cut off all communications to her."

"Let's save talk like that for our date," Amy chuckled. "That is why we're having it."

"I know."

"And you're not too happy about it."

"I'm really not," said Sonic. "It's almost ironic, though. I split with Sally because she wanted to take things too quickly, and now I can't wait to just get this over with."

"Do you hate her?" Amy asked.

"Not as much as I used to," Sonic replied. "I'm not going to go out of my way to demonise her for anyone's benefit, mostly because it doesn't benefit anyone."

"True," Amy said. "That's a very mature way of looking at it."

"Well, I'm a mature guy," Sonic said, burping after that.

"Lucky me," Amy said sarcastically, before giggling. "Anyway, I'll see you later, okay?"

Sonic smiled. "Later."

After the two hung up, Tails came down, his fur slightly wet still. "You need better friends."

"Does that include you?" Sonic asked.

"No, because I'm your best friend. There's a difference."

"What happened?"

"Knuckles got shower hungry. The moment I was done rinsing myself, he forced me out of the bathroom. Good thing I had my towel on already."

Sonic chuckled. "That could have gone bad. Oh, and thanks for the breakfast and the coffee."

"You're welcome," Tails smiled. "See? Best friend."

"Would my best friend like to go and dry himself off before treading water all over the house?"

"Your best friend is still drying off," Tails said. "My fur doesn't dry that easily. One of the few downsides of being a fox."

"That and the fact that you were chucked out of the shower before you could dry fully?"

"Also that," Tails nodded. "That was a factor."

"Why not dry off in your room?" Sonic asked.

"The towel was already too wet for me to use," Tails said. "And I didn't want half-ass it and waste another."

"Shower rushes are a bitch," Sonic shrugged.

"Especially if it's quick showers with friends waiting in line," Tails added on, sitting next to Sonic.

"How'd the towel get so wet?"

"I sort of used it on my tails more..." Tails replied. "I was worried that the water might affect my implant, since that's at the base of my spine."

"Tails, the implant is under your skin," Sonic pointed out. "It would have been fine."

"I know that now," the yellow fox defended.

"You're supposed to be the smart one."

"It's early?"

"That's better."

Tails chuckled, then looking down to see that he was just in his boxers, thanks in part to being forced out of the shower.. "I'd best get dressed, hadn't I?"

"Might help, yeah," Sonic said.

Tails nodded, turning and heading back up the stairs. Sonic shook his head, deciding to head to the living room. He put the TV on and saw a female news reporter, microphone in hand, speaking about the events of the previous night. She was a Mobian peacock with red and yellow feathers, and her name came up as Delia.

"As you can see," she said, "I'm at the scene of a crime that was stopped. I'm actually here to talk with some of the local residents in this district who were helped." She walked out of frame, the camera catching up, and the lady from the laundromat appeared. "So, what's your name?"

"Pamela," the lady replied.

"Well, Pamela, what happened last night?"

The laundromat owner sighed. "Well, it scared me at first. I almost didn't want to let them in, because they weren't police."

"Who were they?" Delia asked. "The freelancers?"

Pamela nodded. "I was scared out of my wits, but I put my trust in them, and they helped." She chuckled. "They were almost better than the police who got here first."

"Damn right we were," Sonic said, eating more of his cereal.

"Thank you for your time," Delia said. She then turned to an African-American man. "And your name, sir?"

"My name is Mickey," he replied. "But just call me Mick."

"So, Mick, did you come across the freelancers as well?" Delia asked.

"I did indeed," the liquor store owner nodded. "They actually needed to come through my shop to get around the back of the bad guys from last night. I almost killed the wrong people with my shotgun, but they earned my trust pretty quickly on account of them not wearing balaclavas."

Delia chuckled at that. "And what do you know about them being freelancers?"

"I heard in the news that they were fired as cops," Mickey replied. "To which I have to say this; those freelancer kids were a lot better than the cops themselves. They saw the situation, they took their time, they put together a good strategy, and somehow, they took out those thieves quicker than our cops did. Those boys have earned my respect as well as a free discount on any beer that they want."

Sonic chuckled to himself as Delia smiled. "Well, thank you, Mick." The old man walked out of frame, and the peacock turned back to the camera. "You heard it here first. Those freelance agents have been busy, but their track record speaks for itself. Maybe them being fired was a blessing in disguise. But, who can tell? I'm Delia the peacock, signing off for Green Hill News 1."

The signal then cut off, and before it went to the main news room, Sonic flipped it over to see a gaming live stream. "It's crazy how these are being more broadcast all over the world these days."

"Ooh, sweet! A gaming tournament!" Knuckles said, walking over with Tails. The yellow fox wore a dark green flannel top over a yellow t-shirt with tan jeans and red sneakers, and Knuckles wore an orange t-shirt with black sleeves, along with black long shorts and brown boots.

"Hey, guys," Sonic smiled. "I got some news; we were just on the news."

"Like, literally?" asked Tails. "Because I sure don't recall seeing any camera crew last night."

"Not really," Sonic chuckled. "Those two shopkeepers from last night talked about us. Saying about how we were better than the actual cops and shit."

"I mean..." Knuckles started.

"They're not wrong," Shadow finished as he walked down the stairs. He was slipping on a light grey sweater as he walked, combining that with blue jeans and black boots.

"You showered quick," said Knuckles.

"I used the one at the other end when Knuckles was still in the first one," Shadow shrugged.

Sonic turned to Tails. "See? He thought about that, and you did not."

"It's early..." Tails said, repeating his earlier statement.

"It's less early now than it was earlier," Knuckles smirked.

"Shut up and get some breakfast," Sonic said.

"Yes, fearless leader," the other three said in unison.

"Hey, it's Doctor Supreme Fearless Leader, and don't you forget it," Sonic warned.

They all laughed with that, and the others grabbed cereal and coffee before rejoining Sonic in the living room. They watched the TV and had their breakfast to pass the time. Knuckles offered to put the bowls away, to which the others accepted with thanks.

As he did, Tails cropped up. "So, do we have anything on Nack so far?"

"Not much," Sonic said. "The only lead that I can think of was maybe at the docks. It might be worth checking out when I get back from my date with Amy."

"We could scope it out tonight instead," Shadow suggested. "Trying to do something like that in the middle of the day would only raise suspicions. Add that onto us going to talk with last night's dick-bags, and we could lose another job."

"He's right," Knuckles agreed, walking back over. "We need to be careful about this."

"Looks like it might have to be at night," Sonic said. "It might be easier if not all of us go."

"Or we could ask someone else to come with us?" Tails suggested. "We've still got friends on the force, after all."

"True," Sonic replied. "We'd just have to hope that they're not busy."

"If they are, we'll probably get called in for backup," said Shadow. "We can probably get their help in a situation like that as a form of repayment."

"It's probably not a good idea to bribe the cops," Knuckles pointed out. "Just saying."

Sonic nodded. "Agreed. If we're going to get their help, I don't want to guilt trip them or anything. We'll ask, they'll answer, and depending on what their answer is will result in what we wind up doing tonight."

"Well, you said that not all of us are going," Tails said. "Maybe a couple of us ask a couple of them to help?"

"That could go for if we have to play the backup role too," Knuckles added on.

Sonic sighed. "All right, if need be, then we'll ask for help if we've helped them. But that's only if the situation calls for it. Otherwise, let's do this normally. Good?"

"Good," Tails smiled.

"No problems here," Knuckles agreed.

"Eh, I suppose so," Shadow said. "Come on. Let's get going."

"Hey, I'm the leader here," Sonic said. "Guys, let's get going."

Shadow shrugged. "You did say it better than I did."

Sonic chuckled, and the two shared a fist bump before heading out. Since it was still relatively early, they did grab some jackets and hoodies to keep themselves warm. They headed to Knuckles' car, and wasting little time, they pulled out and headed for Green Hill, arriving there in about fifteen minutes.

"That was quick," Sonic said.

"Yeah, traffic's usually light this time of morning," Knuckles noted as he looked for a place to park.

He soon found one, and turned his head as he heard another vehicle coming in. Not a police vehicle, this one was a blocky looking car with a black paint job, having thin yellow stripes on the sides. Black tyres and shining silver wheels helped completed the look, and soon, the car found its own space, and the driver cut the engine. The front door then opened, with Vector stepping out, wearing his police uniform.

He was followed by Charmy and Espio, also uniform-clad, as they walked up to Knuckles' car. "You guys again?" asked Vector as the four got out. "You do realise that you don't work here any more, right?"

"Eh, technically we still kind of do," Sonic smiled. "And we do a better job than you guys."

"Yeah, we saw the news this morning," said Espio.

"So, why are you guys wearing your uniforms?" asked Knuckles.

"And why did you come here in one car instead of staying in your rooms at the department?" Tails piled on.

"Uniforms are because it's easier to put them on before we get here," Vector answered. "All in one car is because we stayed up late at Charmy's place working on a little something special for you guys..."

"Shouldn't you stick to working on that at the department?" Tails asked.

"You don't even know what it was we were working on," Charmy defended.

"It's either the hover-boards or the world's shiniest blender," Knuckles said. "And I sure don't see no satisfied looks on your faces, so I'm assuming that it's the boards."

"Dammit, you're good at this," said Vector.

"Well, we are interrogating people today," said Sonic.

"And that answers the unasked question of why are you here in the first place," Espio said. "Thanks for saving me a job there."

"Grilling the bad guys from last night?" asked Charmy.

"Yep," Tails nodded. "Not all of them at once, as that'd take too long. Just their ringleader, whoever the hell he is."

"We'll figure it out," Vector said. "Let's head inside."

"Oh, not without the boards," Charmy said. He quickly rushed to the back of Vector's car and opened it, pulling the boards in question out.

"I knew I was forgetting something," Vector said, pressing a button on his keys to lock his car.

Knuckles quickly did the same, and they all grouped up and headed inside. Espio, Charmy, and Vector immediately headed for their part of the department where as the remaining four were at the front desk. Before they could speak, Cosmo ran around and hugged Tails tightly, who hugged back.

"Hi..." Cosmo smiled.

"Hi back," Tails blushed, kissing his girlfriend.

"I was worried after last night," Cosmo said. "I did call you..."

Tails nodded. "I would have replied, but after how late we stayed up, I just kinda crashed to bed. I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," Cosmo smiled.

"Um... guys?" Sonic said.

"Oh, let them have their moment," said Mina.

"They have enough moments as it is," Knuckles complained.

"Man, you really need to get back to Shade," Sonic said.

"Big time," the red echidna agreed.

Mina shared a laugh. "So, what are you guys here for?"

"We're here to have a little chat with the punks from last night," said Sonic.

"Just one punk will do, though," said Tails. "Do you girls have info on their leader?"

"Nothing except that he's a human who goes by the name of Cutler," said Cosmo.

"Then let's go see him," Sonic said.

"You might need these first," Mina said, throwing some keys to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "Good thinking." He then turned to his two-tailed friends. "Tails, I'm sorry..."

"I know," Tails said. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Cosmo kissed Tails' lips and smiled. "Sounds good to me."

The two broke their embrace, and Tails turned to see that his friends were already headed down the hall with the holding cells, so he rushed to catch up with them. As soon as he did, he looked around at the cells themselves, feeling a bit nervous despite most of the criminals being asleep.

"We've sure put a lot of bad people away lately, huh?" he pointed out.

Knuckles shrugged. "They can't hurt us. Electrically charged cells, remember? Any bad movements, they get hit with a bug zapper."

"And besides," said Sonic, "we're only here to talk to one of them."

"They didn't really tell us which cell was his, now that I think about it," said Knuckles.

"Maybe it's further down?" Shadow suggested.

"Or we could try this," Sonic said. "Hey! Wake up, you lazy fucks!"

At his voice, those that were sleeping woke up, with those already awake only growing more incense at the blue hedgehog's yelling. One of the criminals walked up to his cell and let out a growl, glaring at Sonic as he passed by.

"Get the fuck out of here, you pigs!" the bad guy said.

"Actually, there's not a pig among us," said Tails. "Well, there was that one officer from the other day, but he doesn't count."

Sonic walked up to the bad guy, seeing his profile and noticing a few bruises, including a welt below his left eye, both of which were dark brown. His dyed blond hair had been stained with some blood, not having been cleaned yet.

"Say, do you happen to know of a certain someone named Cutler?" Sonic asked.

"What's it to you?"

"We put him away with the rest of you," Knuckles said. "Tell us where he is, or we'll kill you where you are."

"Wait... it's you guys!" The bad guy began laughing. "The cyber freaks from last night!"

"That's another point we need to bring up," Tails said. "But not out here."

"Why not?"

"Because we need to interrogate you, Cutler," Shadow said.

"How did-"

"You're the only one who spoke up when we called out at first," Sonic said. "And given your recent head wounds, I'm going to go ahead and say that you're not the sharpest tool in the shed."

"I doubt that he really was before, so," Knuckles added.

"Let's get this over with..." Cutler grumbled.

Sonic nodded, using the keys that he'd been given to unlock Cutler's cell. Since the leader of last night's criminals still had his handcuffs on, the others didn't have to worry about him trying to escape. They kept him close, soon making it to the interrogation rooms at the end of the hall. They went to the first of the six, making sure to secure Cutler to the table there by his hands as well as by his feet.

The four smiled, then looked at each other before Tails spoke. "We need to reconvene outside."

"Do as you please," Cutler shrugged.

The four nodded, leaving the room and looking at each other again, with Tails once again striking up the conversation. "So... how do we do this?" he asked.

"I've got no problem with giving this ass-hole what for," Sonic said.

"I think we're all agreed on that front," Knuckles replied.

"If you want me to do it again," Shadow said, "all you have to do is ask."

"Well, how about all four of us?" Tails suggested.

"I don't know," Knuckles doubted. "That sure puts a weird twist on the old good cop bad cop thing considering that there's four of us."

"Good thing we're not cops," Sonic said, smiling at Tails. "You sly fox."

"I don't get it?" Knuckles said.

"Tails knows that the bad guys don't know how our employment works. They know that we're freelance agents, sure, but they don't know that we only work when we're needed." Sonic high-fived his friend. "Nice work!"

Tails smiled. "And since this guy somehow knows about our cyber parts, we can use that against him too."

"We do need to ask about that," Shadow replied.

"Well, let's do it," Sonic said, extending his fist. "All in with the plan?"

The others bumped fists with him in agreement before reentering the interrogation room. Cutler sat patiently, looking up as all four walked in. Shadow and Knuckles stood on either side of the bad guy, Tails kicked back and leaned against the wall near the door, and Sonic decided to sit across from Cutler.

"So, we have a few things that we'd like to ask you," Sonic said.

"Well, I'm not really in a position to not answer your questions, so... fire away, I guess," Cutler said.

"First thing is, how long did it take you to set up last night's hijacking?"

"About a couple of weeks," Cutler said. "It took me a while to get men who were good enough."

"You sure had a lot of them," Sonic followed on. "Where'd you get them from?"

"Mostly Green Hill," Cutler said. "Got a few guys in from Star Light too."

"No wonder the crime rate there isn't so bad," said Knuckles. "This dick-bag probably took in some of their best criminals."

"Is there really any reason for name calling?" asked Cutler.

"You called us cyber freaks earlier," Tails replied. "You can't really blame my friend for that."

"And maybe dick-bag was kind of harsh, so I'm sorry for that," Knuckles said.

"Thank you," said Cutler, not meaning it.

"And besides, douche-canoe would have been more fitting."

"Back to the question at hand," Sonic said, trying to bring their focus back to grilling Cutler, "how did you know about the cyber parts?"

"Oh, I was the guy that big red there headbutted," Cutler said, hooking a thumb behind him. "You got rid of the leader early on. Congratulations. Bang up strategy."

"Sarcasm fits you worse than your mask did," Sonic smirked.

"So, we essentially told him?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, you told him," said Sonic. "You did kind of blurt it out in the middle of the fight."

"And for that, I am sorry," Knuckles said, turning back to Cutler. "Anyway, you managed to tell your men about our implants before we went head to head."

"First of all, nice pun," said the ringleader. "Second of all, so what if I did?"

"Well, that means that you and your men must have had something to nullify that," Shadow said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have mentioned it."

Cutler sighed. "We got our hands on some weapons that we could use against people with implants. We used some on the normal cops here, but all that we did was hurt them."

"What kind of weapons?" asked Tails.

"Grenades," said Cutler. "The ones with the multiple settings, before you ask."

"How'd you get your hands on those?" Sonic asked. "That's police grade stuff. Seems pretty high level for a bunch of money truck thieves."

"I can't tell you," Cutler said.

"Aw, and you were being so cooperative up until this point too," Sonic said. "Tell us where you got them."

"I honestly can't," said Cutler.

"Did someone give them to you?" asked Knuckles.

"Yes."

"And where did you get them?" Tails asked.

"That would also be telling," Cutler said.

"Now he's just taking the piss," Tails said.

"Cutler, you have to tell us," Sonic said. "Otherwise, we'll blow your brains all over the wall."

"But you don't have guns," said Cutler.

"We don't need them," Sonic said. "Knuckles could punch your head so hard that it literally explodes."

"I've done it before," Knuckles said. "And it's been a long time since I last did it, so I'm really looking to do it again."

"You guys can't threaten me," Cutler said.

"We're freelance," said Sonic. "We can do whatever the fuck we want. You think that we can't take you out just because we don't have our weapons on us?"

"Not just that, but there won't be a trace of you left by the time that we're done," Shadow said.

Cutler shook his head. "You're talking a lot, but you're not actually doing anything."

"You know, you're right," Sonic said. "Boys, if you wouldn't mind."

Shadow suddenly pushed Cutler's head against the metal table, with Tails joining his friend to help hold him down. Knuckles knelt down and rested his head against the table until he was face level with Cutler. He watched the criminal struggle, trying to break free of the Mobians' grip.

"See this hands?" the red echidna said. "These are where my implants are. Thanks to these, I could punch a hole right through the back of your head and then through the table, without losing any momentum."

"I could run around the room too," Sonic said. "I'll just spin this guy up in a tornado until he can't breathe any more."

"I could use my flight to hang him from the ceiling," Tails added. "Wouldn't take long, especially considering how hurt he already is."

Cutler shook his head, turning his eyes as best as he could to look at Shadow. "And what about you?"

"My best work might be done outside of here," Shadow said. "I could teleport you to the top of this building and drop you off. I could chuck you in the bottom of a lake. I could drop you into heavy traffic... I have so many options."

"So, you can't do anything inside of here?" Cutler asked.

"Well, he could probably break your neck," Sonic said. "Shadow's not the strongest guy when it comes to fighting, but in terms of accuracy, he trumps us all."

"Yep," Tails said. "If he shoots and he misses, then it's probably on purpose."

Cutler shook his head, but felt it picked up from behind and slammed onto the table again. It wasn't a harsh slam, but it got his attention, causing him to flail around a bit less. As he regained his bearings, Sonic leaned forward in his chair.

"Now, I want you to listen very carefully," he said, his voice level and cold. "You're going to tell us what we need to know. Or we're going to break your fucking neck."

Cutler struggled a bit, but soon relented. "There was something at the docks. That's all I know."

"Which docks?" asked Sonic.

"The ones in Star Light," Cutler answered.

"You said earlier that you had fewer guys from Star Light helping," Tails pointed out.

"That's true," Cutler said. "But the weapons came from those guys. I asked them about it, and they told me that they didn't really catch who they got them from. Just that it looked like some Mobian."

"Anything else?" Knuckles asked.

"That's it," Cutler said. "Those kinds of deals go down late at night. Good luck trying to match a name to a face at that point."

Sonic sighed. "All right, let him up."

The others released their grip on the man, letting him stand up. As he did, Sonic stood up with him, looking into his eyes. Cutler looked back, looking a bit confused as he was pushed back down to his seat, letting out a groan.

"What the fuck?" he complained.

"We do have one final question," said Sonic.

"Just get it over with," said Cutler. "I'm not going anywhere. Clearly."

"Have you heard the name Nack before?" Sonic asked.

Cutler raised an eyebrow. "I've heard that name, but I've never met him."

"What about recently?" Sonic asked.

"You said one final question," Cutler groaned.

Sonic smiled. "I did, didn't I?"

Cutler shook his head. "No, I haven't heard anything else lately. And even if something did pop up, I'd stay away from the guy."

"You're scared of Nack?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"Not scared," said Cutler. "More like intimidated. People like me don't really belong on his level."

"And here I thought you were all pally with someone like him."

The blond man shook his head. "No. I just run my own little group. The only affiliations I have are in Star Light, and even that was just the men from last night. There are no crime bosses in Star Light, after all."

"But there's plenty of dip-shits willing to buy what you're selling them," Sonic said. "All right, let him back up."

"Are you going to take me back to my cell this time?" Cutler asked.

"Of course we are," Sonic smiled. "Just as long as you promise to behave yourself."

"I'll try to keep my mouth shut," Cutler said.

Sonic nodded, and his friends soon lifted the bad guy back up. Sonic turned and opened the door to the interrogation room, waiting for his friends. They removed the cuffs from Cutler's ankles before walking around the table. Sonic waited by the door for the others to leave before joining them. They took Cutler back to his cell without much issue, locking him back up before walking back out to the front foyer of the department.

"Well, that was surprisingly easy to take care of," said Sonic.

"And we didn't even need weapons to do it," Knuckles added.

"Still, it feels like we got one step forwards and two steps backwards," Tails pointed out. "He had good info, but we can't really do anything about it right now."

"We could tell Avery," said Knuckles. "We probably need to go and talk to him anyway, right?"

"We can't tell him, because that would mean running an operation outside of our jurisdiction," said Shadow. "If we told the commissioner of Green Hill's police force to take care of something in Star Light, it wouldn't go down well."

"And we can't exactly go up and tell Star Light either," Tails added. "That would count as starting our own operation, and that'd just get us into even more trouble."

"Fucking technicalities..." Knuckles said. "I'm getting pretty sick and tired of feeling like we can do whatever we want to help only to realise that we can't. We're just the backup."

"I hate to break this to you," said Sonic, "but if we want our old jobs back, we kind of have to get used to being the backup."

"I know," said Knuckles. "All right, let's go up and say hi to Avery."

"Is he even up this early?" asked Tails.

"Yep," said Mina. "He's an early bird. Or early bear, as the case may be."

"Same with Ash," said Cosmo. "He spends a long time on his presentations."

"Well, we'll have to thank him for his hard work," Sonic smiled. "See you two later."

"Take care!" said Cosmo. "Especially you, Tails!"

"You too!" the yellow fox waved.

With that, the four went up the stairs to the third floor. They wasted little time and hurried to the conference room, deciding to walk in as Avery and Ash were talking. Avery was in his usual uniform, and Ash was wearing a dark red button t-shirt, a black and white striped tie, dark brown slacks, and black shoes.

"I'm just saying, maybe those people are right," Ash said.

"That could be grounds for insubordination, you know," Avery replied.

"Well, let me ask you this then," Ash began. "Your men were fighting those ass-hats from last night, and they caved in quickly to call for the backup. It didn't take long for Sonic and the other freelancers to get there, but it sure as shit took them half that time to stop the bad guys. My question is this: Why not just give them their jobs back?"

Avery sighed. "I would. You know that I would. But it's out of my hands, and the court's decision on it is final." He sighed as he gestured for the four to sit down, which they did. "You boys believe me, right?"

Sonic nodded. "We do."

Avery smiled. "You're good men. I want you to understand that. If it were up to me, that stupid jurisdiction law wouldn't exist any more."

"And if it were up to us, we probably would have found the guy who thought it was a good idea and kicked him right in the family jewels," Knuckles said.

The bear laughed at that. "I'm glad that you guys see it that way. But that doesn't mean that you're off the hook..."

"What did we do wrong, exactly?" Tails asked. "Last time I checked, our job was to wait until we were called to help. Last night, we waited, we got called, and then we helped."

"Not just that," Knuckles said, "but we took care of it quicker than your men could."

"Speaking of which," Shadow said, "how are those that got injured?"

"Fine so far," said Ash. "Got a call this morning from the hospital. They're in stable conditions. It'll take them a while to get back on their feet, but there was nothing fatal from the gunshot wounds. We got lucky."

"Let's give them implants and see how well they fare," Tails smirked.

"That actually wouldn't be a bad idea," said Avery. "But their injuries aren't serious enough to warrant that. At the moment, that's a rare occasion."

Sonic nodded, clearing his throat. "So, are we in trouble for last night?"

Avery shook his head. "No, but no doubt that you've seen the news this morning."

"Indeed we did," Sonic said. "And... well..."

"You agree too, right?" Ash asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Well... yeah. Kinda."

Ash smiled, turning to Avery. "See?"

Avery smiled back. "I agree. You guys are better than my men, and you've had way too many successful missions now for that to be called a fluke." He then turned serious. "But rules are rules. I can't really change much about your job description any more than I can give you your old jobs back."

"Well, we do technically have those jobs," said Sonic. "Just to a lesser extent."

"Remember when that judge said that we wouldn't be doing much major stuff?" said Knuckles. "All the stuff that we've been doing so far sure seems pretty major to me."

Avery shrugged. "Like I said, it's out of my hands." He shook his head. "Anyway, back to the task at hand. Ash, if you wouldn't mind."

The mongoose let out a sigh. "It's always me..." he said, pressing a button in his remote. "We saw your conversation with Cutler in the interrogation room."

"I didn't see a camera when I walked in there," Sonic pointed out.

"Well, it was in there," said Avery. "It's just very small. We even have the conversation between Shadow and Bark from the other day."

Ash smiled, pressing a button to show the interrogation between Shadow and Bark. "See? It's all on video."

"Just keeping an eye on us, huh?" Sonic grinned.

"I just want to make sure that you're sticking to the task at hand," Avery said as Ash switched back to the Cutler video. "Now, you asked him where he got his stuff from. I want to know why you asked him that."

"Good point," Tails said. "Well, we asked him because, as the video will tell you, Knuckles blurted out that we have cybernetic implants and such. And you also know that we beat the bad guys up before they could do anything."

"These are answers that I already have," said Avery. "I want to know why you asked him."

"We wanted to see if he had any connections," said Sonic. "Granted, all the criminals looked the same with their black cloth masks on, but we wanted to know where else he could have gotten his men."

"And you weren't hoping for Star Light to be his response, I'm guessing?" Avery said.

Sonic took a breath and sighed. "You guessed right."

"Sonic, you know that you're really pushing it by running your own little side thing as a freelancer," Avery said. "I don't need to point it out again, do I?"

"No," the blue hedgehog said, shaking his head. "You don't."

"But Nack is still out there," said Avery, nodding. "We get it. We get what you're trying to do. But I'm saying this both as a police force commander and as a friend: Do not even go out there."

"Is this really a protection thing?" Sonic asked. "Or is it about public perception with the prison transfer being tomorrow?"

"A little bit of both, I won't lie," said Avery. "But ultimately, it is to keep you guys guarded. We have nobody who we can trust on the Westopolis police force. Nack probably has every single one of them in his pocket." He sighed. "We don't know what he's up to, or how bad that could be."

"I've got some ideas," said Sonic. "Drugs and guns we know about already, but I feel like prostitution trafficking could be another one. Only problem is, we don't have enough proof to back that last one up, so it's just a theory."

"Maybe that could be possible, but even if we had more than that, it wouldn't matter," said Avery. "We simply can't go after him. I want to, and I know that you guys really want to. But we can't."

Sonic sighed. "We know. But..."

"But?"

Knuckles grinned. "Say we were allowed to maybe run our own mission..."

"And?" Avery said.

"And we wanted to get some backing from the good men and women here at Green Hill..." Tails followed on.

"I think I see your point," Avery said.

Shadow smirked. "I mean, we're not allowed to do it. But if we did, you'd be behind us, right?"

"Of course," said Avery. "After all, I did ask you to help us out tomorrow for the transfer just in case. I can preemptively ask you to go on planned out things like that as backup."

"Well, that's good to know," Sonic said, standing up with the rest of his friends. "Thanks for filling us in."

"No problem," Ash replied.

Avery shook his head. "I look forward to seeing you boys tomorrow."

"We'll be there," said Sonic.

Avery nodded, and the blue hedgehog and his friends turned to leave the room. They wasted no time in reaching the stairs and heading down to the ground floor, leaving through the double doors of the entrance and making their way to Knuckles' car.

"You know, you could have tried being more subtle with telling Avery that you want to go to Westopolis," said Knuckles.

"I could have," said Sonic. "But that would have meant only me saying something about it. If I wanted it to work, the rest of you wouldn't have joined in."

"True," Tails said. "Still, I feel like something is in order."

"Like what?" asked Sonic. "We can't run operations."

"I wasn't thinking that," said the two-tailed fox. "I was thinking a stakeout."

"And where would we do that, exactly?" asked Shadow.

"The docks," said Tails. "We'd have a better shot in Star Light, I think. That drug bust at the Green Hill docks might have been a lucky shot. But we got actual confirmation that weapons were delivered to Star Light City."

"That's not a bad idea," Shadow admitted. "I mean, it's not a bad thing if we're just observing something, right?"

"Right," Knuckles agreed. "Just sit back and watch from afar to see if what Cutler said was one hundred percent truth. And if we fuck up, then we'll have nothing to worry about because we won't be getting actively involved."

"Let's try to keep that in mind for tonight, yeah?" Sonic smiled.

"I'll get some food ready for tonight," said Knuckles. "And I really should work on a stakeout mix..."

"Later, big red," Sonic chuckled. "Right now, let's head back home. Put our feet up, chill, game a bit, who knows?"

"And wait until Amy calls you up?" Tails asked.

"Also that," Sonic nodded. "That is also a thing."

They all let out a laugh as Knuckles started up the car, pulling out of the parking lot and finding the road. He decided to put on some music despite how brief their trip would be, and the four friends sang along to it as they went back home to enjoy their free time.

* * *

 **So, there you have it! Another chapter is all done and dusted, and whilst I would have liked it to come out sooner, at least I got it out quicker than I thought. Regardless, I hope that y'all enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Obviously, there is more to come as we close in on the endgame of the story. But I'll save that for when it happens. Oh, and since it is about that time where I am, Happy Halloween! Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Remember to take care and stay tuned.**


	30. What We Hold Dear

Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow were all sat on the couch, playing a 4-player online game. Sonic played an offensive hero, Shadow was on defence, Knuckles was the tank, and Tails was the healer, rushing to fix Shadow's character back up.

"We almost have the point!" Sonic said. "We just need to push a little more!"

"I'll head up to one of the pillars and see if I can snipe that annoying flying enemy," Shadow said. "Damn rockets..."

"All right, I'll hang back and help Shadow," said Tails. "Knuckles, you push from the front. Sonic, see if you can wipe them out from the side."

Sonic chuckled. "I like how Shadow's aim in video-games is just as good as in real life."

"Only problem is I'm only good as sniper characters," said Shadow. "I get it." His character started losing some health. "I need healing!"

"I'm on it!" Tails said.

Knuckles stormed through the enemies at the point, smashing through with a hammer before smashing the ground with it. "There we go! Enemies are down!"

"I've got them in my sights," Sonic replied. "Tails, Shadow, group up!"

Tails and Shadow's characters soon met with Sonic, Knuckles joining and providing a shield to protect them as the black and red hedgehog spoke. "You guys ready?"

"Ready," said Tails.

"On my mark," said Sonic. "3... 2... 1... now!"

Tails' character activated a healing aura that patched up his teammates as Sonic activated his characters ultimate ability where he could target anyone on the screen without having to aim, as well as being able to cycle through them. He chewed through the opposition, with Shadow picking off sniper shots from behind to help, as Knuckles kept the shield up and Tails kept healing the team. Soon, the circle in the top middle filled up, and the game was won.

"10 seconds to spare!" said Sonic. "Almost breached overtime there."

"I love playing WatchTower with you guys," said Tails.

"You're good at keeping us patched up," Sonic smiled as his phone vibrated. He opened it up and saw a text from Amy. "Getting ready to leave now," he read. "See you soon."

"You're really going through the talk of the ex beau with your current beau, huh?" Knuckles asked.

"At this point, it'd just be straight up rude if I didn't," Sonic said. "I should get ready."

"You want me to take you?" asked Knuckles.

"I'll take my own car," said Sonic. "Thanks for the offer, though." He then got a phone call, and opened it to see Rotor's name, so he answered it. "Well, if it ain't the good doctor!"

"I prefer the good mortician," said Rotor with a dry tone of voice.

"So, what can we do for you?" Sonic asked as he put the phone on speaker.

"I actually wanted to see if I could get you guys to come over," Rotor said. "I've been looking at the results from your mission last night and have been comparing them to the samples you gave me. And... well..."

"Well what?" Shadow asked.

"The results are actually pretty good," Rotor chuckled. "Sorry if I worried you."

"No, you're not," said Tails. "You were doing that on purpose to get the intended effect."

"Sure worked on me..." Knuckles muttered.

"Regardless," Rotor continued, "I wanted to let you all know."

"So, you don't need another one from us?" asked Tails.

Rotor shook his head on his end. "Nope. The toys I have where I am keep your blood as fresh as the day that I drew it from you. And as I watch over your missions whilst checking on your samples, I get the pleasure of seeing them change around the more you do. See, an implant works like muscle memory; the more you use it, the easier it gets acquainted into your body, and the more powerful you both become. It's like making a pact with an inanimate object that gives you powers."

"Or keeps us alive in Shadow's case," said Knuckles.

"Technically, you were all kept alive because of the implants," said Rotor. "Regardless of if you could have survived being physically disabled from the crash itself, the injuries otherwise sustained may have killed you."

"Good thing we have the best doctors working to patch us back up," Sonic said. "And that medicinal paste was a huge help."

"I hear that they're thinking of re-purposing that somehow," Rotor said.

"Oh, really?" Tails asked.

The purple walrus chuckled. "It's just some theories going around, but they're thinking of maybe mixing them with pharmaceuticals so that drug stores can benefit more from it."

"I know a certain someone who could benefit from that," said Sonic.

"Speaking of that certain someone," Knuckles interrupted, "hadn't you best get ready?"

"Get ready?" asked Rotor. "Does blue boy have another date?"

"Um... well, yeah," Sonic said.

Rotor chuckled. "I'm just joshing you. Where are you off to nice?"

"Jade Mountain," Sonic answered.

"Ah, right," said Rotor. "Well, good luck with your date. I'll keep you guys posted on any more news in regards to the blood samples or the medicinal paste."

"Both would be helpful," Tails said. "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem," Rotor said. "Take care."

Sonic hung up before quickly rushing upstairs. He checked over his quills in the mirror, seeing that they were a bit messy, so he tried to slick them back. He then added some cologne before heading back downstairs.

"So, how do I look?" he asked.

"Like Sonic, but with nicer hair and you smell better," Knuckles said. "Who are you and what have you done with Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog chuckled, then decided to pull out his phone to send a text back to Amy. "On my way now. See you in a little bit." He then sighed and grabbed himself a black jacket on the way to the front door. "All right, guys! I'm off out for my date!"

"And what are we supposed to do?" asked Knuckles.

"Hold down the fort to the best of your abilities," said Sonic. "If you get called for backup, don't hesitate to help."

"But aren't you our battle strategist?" Shadow asked.

"Usually, yes," Sonic replied. "But I'm leaving that up to you for today."

"Yeah, let's leave the guy who doesn't talk to anybody to tell us what to do in the heat of battle," Knuckles said. "I see absolutely no negative effects."

"The only negative one here is you, Knuckles," Sonic said. "I wouldn't put my faith in Shadow if I didn't think that he could handle it."

"Why can't Tails or I do it?" the red echidna asked.

"Because Tails is the smartest one here, but his first lady is the wrench and not the gun," Sonic said.

"You know me so well," said Tails.

"And you're the best fighter here," Sonic said to Knuckles, "but you suck as a strategist."

"Wow," Knuckles said. "Thanks, dick."

"Knuckles, we almost lost that last game because you wanted us to rush in behind you on the first objective," Shadow said.

"What, that's not an effective strategy?" Knuckles asked. "Hit the thing in the face until it dies usually works well enough for me."

"Well, this isn't a video-game," Sonic said. "We can't just hit the thing in the face until it dies. We need to be more precise and accurate. We need to plan this out. And that is why Shadow's in charge, and you're not."

"What about me?" Tails asked.

"You're our healer," Sonic grinned. "Heal yourself and the others with some good lunch."

"You're bringing us back stuff from Jade Mountain," Shadow said. "Remember?"

"Dammit... I keep hoping that you guys will forget that," Sonic chuckled. "All right, I'll bring you back something when me and Amy are done."

Shadow nodded. "Better get a move on, dude."

Sonic nodded back, waving. "See you later, guys!"

"Adios!" Knuckles said as Sonic left. When the blue hedgehog did leave, Knuckles turned to the others. "So, another game?"

"Eh, why not," Shadow said. "I'll run offence this time."

"Let's see if we can run a good three on three," Tails added.

Sonic shook his head as he overheard more of the conversation before getting into his blue car. He started up the engine with no trouble at all and pulled out of the parking lot, heading straight for the road. Despite the harsh traffic in the early afternoon, Sonic managed to make it to the Jade Mountain, seeing Amy sat at a bench outside of it, who waved when he saw his car.

Sonic waved back as he found a place to park his car, with only a few others popping up, with a few leaving after going around the back, getting their food from the drive-through. Sonic killed the engine to his car and walked up to Amy, noticing her clothing; a pink tank top under a dark grey jacket, tight dark blue jeans, and red heeled shoes, along with her purse draped across her right shoulder.

"Hey there," he smiled, reaching to hug her.

Amy accepted the hug, and sniffed a bit as something went up her nose. "You got yourself smelling all nice for me, huh?" she smirked.

"Eh, I figured that it wouldn't harm the situation," he smiled, offering his arm. "Shall we go inside?" he asked in an overly done and terrible British accent.

"We shall," Amy replied, giving the same accent.

They both walked inside the restaurant proper, giving a wave to the owner as they found a booth to sit at. Before Sonic could ask Amy anything, she put a finger up to stop him talking, pulling out some of her pills from her purse and a small bottle of water. She put the pills in her mouth before swallowing them down with the liquid, putting her finger down when she was finished.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"It's cool," Sonic smiled. "I just wanted to ask what you were having."

"Just a small box for me," Amy said. "The drive back is a long one, so I can't have much to eat."

"Fair enough," Sonic nodded, standing up. He headed over to the counter and smiled at the owner again. "Yo, Wong!"

"Sonic," Mr. Wong nodded, smiling. "How is the big hero today?"

"You saw the news too, huh?" Sonic asked. "And I'm not too bad. Yourself?"

"Was hard not to notice it," Wong admitted. "I'm also not too bad."

"Good to hear," Sonic said.

"So, what would you like?" Wong asked.

"Five small boxes of sweet and sour ribs, five packets of fries, and four cokes," Sonic said.

"That's a lot for just two people," the restaurant owner said with a chuckle as he wrote the order down.

"Oh, I've got some to take back to the others," Sonic shrugged. "No biggie."

"You're a good friend," Wong smiled.

"Sure, let's call it that," Sonic laughed.

Wong laughed with him, calling out the order as he went to the kitchen to help. Sonic decided to head back to Amy, sitting down across from her. He noticed her looking at her phone and smiling, and he cleared his throat.

"So... everything okay?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah," Amy nodded. "It's... well, it's Sally on the phone. She's offering to take over my class whilst I'm on my break."

"How does that work, exactly?" Sonic asked. "The lunch break thing, I mean."

"Oh," Amy said. "Well, there is a school cafeteria since Little Hill is a smaller part of the main school. But with the nursery classes, we do get more freedom to leave when it comes to food. Usually, Honey takes over my classes, but since Sally's returned, there's no need."

"It's cool when she does stuff like that," Sonic smiled.

"She do that for you often?" Amy asked.

"It's what got me to like her," Sonic reminisced. "She's always had this great sense of selflessness that I don't think that I could ever accomplish. We met when I went to get a chilli-dog from a street vendor. Unfortunately, since I was a college dropout who wanted to focus on being in the police force, I didn't have much cash on me. That's when she stepped in and paid for my food for me."

"She kinda mentioned that," Amy smiled. "She never brought you up much, but since you were her super ex by that point, I can see why."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. There was a little bit of animosity between us."

"Was it the choice to become a police officer?" Amy asked.

Sonic shook his head. "No. She supported that fully, and I'm thankful that she did. What caused the animosity was the not coming home as often, overworking myself with the tests to get into the academy so that I couldn't do a whole lot with her when we got back... she saw that the signs were there too. I guess she thought that us moving quicker could have helped things between us."

"But they didn't?" Amy asked.

Sonic shook his head again. "No. They didn't. Call it a mixture of getting more dedicated to the academy and her wanting to move too fast."

"Coming from you, that's kind of ironic," Amy giggled.

Sonic grinned and was about to reply, but was called up by Wong to pick up the food. The blue hedgehog stood from his seat and went to get the food, stopping to pull out his wallet and pay before bringing the food back, making sure to thank the owner when he returned to his seat.

"Where were we?" he asked, setting aside the boxes and drinks for his friends and handing Amy her own box.

"You were about to come up with a witty retort of some sort," Amy reminded as she opened her container.

"Ah, right," Sonic nodded. "Thanks for remembering the script for me."

Amy giggled. "So, everything that you've told me is word for word what Sally said. Not fully verbatim, but still."

"And how did she drop off the face of the planet after we split?" Sonic asked. "I never got that part."

"She went backpacking," Amy said. "After her split with you, she needed to be on her own for a while. It's strange, though. She wasn't teaching at our school for too long beforehand, and I didn't get to know her well, but we became really good friends."

Sonic chuckled. "So, my current girlfriend and the ex who I used to hate were best friends who both taught at the same school?"

"Seems weird, but yes," Amy giggled. "How long did you hate her for, by the way?"

Sonic gulped a bit. "Well, this next part might make me sound like a huge ass-hole."

"Sonic, you've been many things to me, but an ass-hole is not one of them," Amy smiled.

"You sweet talker, you," Sonic chuckled. "Anyway, after we split and I went back to focusing on the academy, I did try to reconnect with her, but she always had her phone off or just didn't take it with her. I guess because she wanted to be alone, and I don't blame her." He then sighed. "Then, after two weeks of trying to contact her, I gave up and basically said good riddance to the whole thing."

"And that's the part that's meant to make you seem like an ass-hole?" Amy asked.

"Yeah," Sonic replied. "Trust me, I was really pissed off about it. It was weird to flipflop between my emotions like that. I got angry at her for wanting to move too fast, then I started missing her when she left, then when she didn't say anything back, I got even more angry and... well, I forcefully cut her out of my life. It didn't feel good, but I started putting my job before my feelings for her." He sighed. "No wonder I did so well."

"You think that Sally still thinks that you hate her?" Amy asked.

"I'm hoping not," Sonic said. "Because I don't hate her. Not like I did at the time. But now that I know what happened, I can rest a bit easier."

Amy smiled. "That's good to hear."

Sonic reached to touch Amy's hand with his. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about all of this earlier. I honestly didn't know if it would come up, or if it was relevant."

Amy giggled. "For what it's worth, I have some exes myself, and to my knowledge, none of them were ever your friends at some point."

"I dunno," Sonic said. "We have a friend named Espio who's a chameleon. He's got a similar brooding charm to Shadow, only with more scales and less chest fluff."

"Does he have anything cool going for him?" Amy asked.

"He can turn invisible," Sonic said. "Like a ninja, almost. He just needs throwing stars and the black garb."

"He'd be useless in the snow, though," Amy giggled.

"True," Sonic said. "Or it could be reflective garb, like a polar bear's fur."

Amy giggled more. "It'd be nice to meet more of your friends."

"Well, I did give you a tour of our new place," Sonic shrugged. "I see no reason why I can't get you into G.H.P.D. to take a look around."

"It might be nice," The pink hedgehog smiled. "Now, let's get to our meal, shall we?"

Sonic nodded and checked his phone, seeing that they were running short on time, and nodded. He opened his own container, soon starting to eat his own food, as did Amy. Both happily enjoyed their ribs and fries before Amy was all finished with her food.

"Ah... that was delicious," she smiled. She then felt her phone vibrating, and checked to see a text message. "My taxi's outside," she said, standing up from her seat and picking her bag up. "Walk me to it?"

Sonic nodded, standing up with Amy. They both started leaving, but the blue hedgehog turned back to face Wong. "I will be taking the food to go, but I'm just walking her out to her cab, so don't throw it away."

"No problem," Wong nodded.

The two hedgehogs held hands as they walked out to the taxi, seeing it waiting by the road at the entrance to the Jade Mountain parking lot. Sonic walked Amy over to it, and opened the door for her, but she stopped before getting in.

She turned to kiss Sonic deeply, briefly catching the blue hedgehog off guard. Sonic chuckled and soon kissed back, even grabbing Amy by the waist as the two made out. Soon, the passionate embrace broke, and Amy giggled.

"You taste like ribs," she noted.

Sonic laughed too. "I didn't have time for a breath mint, and I didn't think I'd need one. Can't blame me."

Amy shook her head. "Fair enough." She kissed him on the cheek, showing another smile. "See you when I see you, Sonic."

"Eh, I'm always available," Sonic said.

"Except for last night..." Amy smirked.

"Am I in the shit-house for that?" Sonic asked, visibly worried.

Amy shook her head. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. You did worry me, but I know that you'll be okay."

Sonic smiled. "For you, I'll always be okay."

"I hope so," Amy replied. She got into the taxi itself and gave a wave to Sonic as it started off.

Sonic waved back as the taxi left, chuckling to himself and shaking his head. "That girl... man..." He shook his head again and went back into the restaurant, waving to the cooks behind the counter as he grabbed the containers of food, putting the empty ones into the trash before picking up the other ones. He gave another goodbye wave to Wong and his workers before leaving the restaurant and heading to his car, starting it up.

"Time to head back to the base," he said to himself. He placed the food into his glove compartment to keep it from being over-spilled, even placing the fries inside the containers with the ribs. He pulled out of the parking lot, soon finding his way to the main road and starting his drive home, thinking of his date with Amy. "You know, all things considered," he said to himself, "that could have gone a lot worse."

As he kept driving, he got a message on his phone. He saw that it was Knuckles and answered it, putting it on speaker mode. "What up, big red?" he asked.

"Sonic!" Knuckles said. "You were right about Shadow!"

"Really?" Sonic asked. "It's almost like I put him in charge for a reason."

"Dude, we're on a ten match winning streak because of him," Tails said. "I even got a new legendary skin!"

"Is it that one that you were after since last month?" Sonic asked.

"I'm nodding very enthusiastically right now!" Tails answered.

Sonic laughed. "I'm on my way back, so just hold the fort until I get back."

"Will do," Knuckles said. "We should have a celebratory lunch when you get back."

"Good thing that I remembered to order for you guys then," Sonic smiled. "See you in a few."

"Adios for now," Knuckles replied, hanging up shortly after.

Sonic shook his head as he hung up as well. "Got to love those guys," he smiled to himself, continuing his drive back to the headquarters.

 **Meanwhile, in Westopolis...**

Nack sighed as he sat in the back of his car, his two henchmen driving him to Lara's brothel. "I do hope that she isn't mad at me."

"Why would she be?" asked the driver. "She said that you could take care of it. She only asked that you didn't kill them. And you kept your promise."

Nack nodded. "I did. But still, with how badly we roughed that ass-hole and his men up, Lara may have lost a customer."

"Maybe Lisa did, but not Lara," said the passenger henchman. "Devin and his men probably won't mess with that poor girl any more. And even if they do return, they won't be as bad as they were."

"They were drunk," Nack pointed out. "They could very well have forgotten by the time that they woke up."

"Drunk and unconscious," the driver added. "Nobody's conversation ready when they're in that position."

"Beau can still hold a pretty good conversation when he's stoned off of his head," Nack joked. "I've had normal conversations with Lara after she's fucked someone or whilst I've fucked her. And Manuel can keep a steady tone even after getting into a fight."

"You know, I've never seen him fight, now that you mention it," the passenger said.

Nack smiled. "Manuel isn't just muscle. He's brainy too. And he can be quick. But he prefers not to get into fighting too much. Nowadays he just does it to keep his physique in check." He chuckled to himself. "Lara probably has sex for the same reason. As for Beau... well, he's not unfit, but he's pretty skinny. Then again, he is a snake..."

"Eh, if you've got a bad enough drug habit, you can lose weight that way," the driver smirked.

Nack nodded. "Well, heroin used to be a big vice of his, and many users that I know did lose weight from it. Of course, they're all dead now, so."

"Becoming a skeleton is often regarded as a good weight loss technique," said the passenger. "Those who go through it never complain about it."

Nack chuckled. "Good point. Luckily, we don't have to worry about making anybody become a skeleton just yet."

The others nodded, remaining silent as the rest of the drive continued. Within the next ten minutes, they had reached their destination, finding a place to park that wasn't too far from the entrance. Nack was the first to exit the car, soon followed by the others as the drive cut the engine.

The door to the brothel was already open, and Nack smiled at the girl who held it open for him. "She's waiting in the kitchen," she said. "Along with some special guests."

Nack cocked an eyebrow, but lowered it and smirked when he understood what was being said. "Got it," he smiled. "Thank you."

The girl nodded, waiting for Nack's henchmen to enter as well before she closed the door. The purple weasel made their way to the kitchen, seeing Lara sat there alongside Beau and Manuel. Lara wore a silvery blouse, a black skirt, and small black heels; Manuel wore a red muscle shirt with a black sleeves, green cargo shorts, and dark brown boots; and beau wore a sleeveless dark brown hoodie over a long sleeved white shirt with blue jeans and red trainers.

"Didn't expect to see all of you at once," Nack admitted, still smiling.

"Well, we have a reason to be here," said Beau. "And it doesn't have anything directly to do with you."

Nack's eyebrows raised as he took a seat. "Well, it must involve me in some way if you waited to tell me about it."

Manuel nodded. "You remember those four that you almost killed?" he said. "They made the news this morning."

"What did they do?" Nack asked.

"Stopped an armoured truck from being robbed," said Lara. "It was apparently heading for the Green Hill Bank, but got hijacked by a shitload of robbers on the way."

"How much money was in there?" Nack asked.

"People are saying round about 10 million," said Lara.

"I'm more amazed that so many folks are still using paper money," Beau admitted. "The cash that Lara just mentioned isn't a patch on what there could have been digitally."

"And how much would that be?" asked Nack.

"Add another six zeroes on the end of that 10 million," Lara smiled.

Nack chuckled to himself as he put the numbers together in his head. "That's a big save indeed. Good for them."

"Good for them," Manuel agreed. "But maybe not so good for us."

"If it's a money issue, then I should remind you that I'm still paying you," Nack said.

"That's not it," Lara said. "It's those four pricks."

Nack shook his head. "They won't be a problem, okay?" he smiled. "Remember the plan for tomorrow?"

"We do," said Beau. "But we weren't told the part of the plan that involved freelance agents maybe being a part of it. We could wind up getting killed because of this shit."

"Just relax, my southern friend," the purple weasel said, his voice calm and disturbingly even. "In fact, everyone around this table should just take a deep breath. I get that tensions are high, but we won't get anywhere if we keep raising our voices."

"We're sorry," Manuel said. "But those guys could throw a huge wrench into the plan if we're not careful."

"It's a good thing that I have such an immaculate plan then, huh?" Nack smiled. "We stick to it nonetheless."

"It's not so immaculate if there are a lot of elements that could go against us," said Beau. "Not least of which being your dirty cop friend."

"He's trustworthy, Beau," Nack said. "If he wanted to sell any of us out, don't you think that he would have done it by now?"

"You mean, if he wanted to sell you out specifically," said Lara.

"I warned you, all of you, that this plan wouldn't be without risk," Nack said. "Unfortunately, more risk just got added. We can work around that, but the method that I have for that is also risky."

"It just keeps getting better and better with you," Beau said.

"Just calm down and hear me out," said Nack. "It's all in what we're doing anyway, remember? We're staging a jailbreak and busting those poor sons of bitches out before they get transferred."

"And that helps us how, exactly?" asked the Southern snake.

Nack smiled, turning to Lara. "How many men were caught trying to rob the armoured bank truck last night?"

"Between 10 and 20," the tigress replied. "Why?"

"With those men being caught that close to the transfer date, it does stand a chance that they might not be transferred," said Manuel.

"Actually, that works to our advantage," Nack said. "Because it doesn't matter how late they catch somebody; when they get taken over to the big house, they could get caught even an hour before the date and still be pushed over there."

"I think I see what you're getting at," said Manuel. "So, if we bust out all of those guys that the others have caught, we'll have more forces to fight back with."

"It would make sense," Beau said, nodding in agreement. "If those guys hated the authority before, imagine how badly they're itching to get back at them so soon after getting caught."

Nack smiled, turning to Manuel. "Can you push some more weapons out just in case?"

Manuel smirked. "I've got more than enough ready for tomorrow, hombre."

"I had a feeling that you'd say that, but we can't get lax at the moment," Nack said. "With more men to rescue, we may need more guns."

"Rescue, huh?" Beau smiled. "That's the word that you're going to use for it?"

"If you have a better one, I'm all ears," Nack said. "But we shouldn't speak more on empty stomachs." He turned to Lara. "What's the plan for lunch?"

"Whatever you wish," Lara smiled, saying the words to all who were sat at the table. She snapped her fingers, and one of her girls walked over.

"May I take your order?" the girl asked.

All of them placed their orders in, with Nack deciding on some chocolate bars and packets of crisps as snacks for his henchmen. Nack himself went for a sausage roll and a bottle of soda. Manuel picked the same, but with a ham and cheese sandwich as well. Beau went for a packet of cookies and orange juice, and Lara went for some wraps as well as some soda.

After the orders were placed in, Lara looked at Nack again, more seriously this time. "We need to deal with those four."

"I know we do," Nack nodded. "I'm not neglecting them in any way. They're not just a thorn in our sides any more; they're a much more serious threat."

"Do you think that they might have suspicions around the docks?" Beau asked.

"That is possible," Nack admitted. "Our only real shot is hoping that enough people that we break out decide to join us."

"And what if they do?" asked Manuel. "You might have the men after that, and the weapons, but if you break them all out and it's still not enough, what do we do?"

"We lay a trap," said Nack. "Freelancers can only go to different places if they're called up, right? Well, it's simple. We just have to call them up here somehow."

"And only those four can come, right?" asked Lara.

"That's right," Nack asked. "Normal cops can't get away with that. But the freelancers can."

"Is it a good idea to do this so close to the deadline?" asked Beau. "You really should have considered this beforehand."

"I'm aware," the purple weasel said, remaining calm still. "But I didn't. I can't see the future, unfortunately." He paused. "But I do have something in line for all of you..."

"And what would that be?" asked Manuel.

"If I get caught or killed, then I want you three to take the money that I'm sending you for this job and run away with it. Take all of your best men, weapons, drugs, and girls and find somewhere safe to hide out."

"The fake IDs..." Lara said. "They won't know it's us at Green Hill. Even if we get caught out for trying to break the others from the prison transfer, the real cops can't follow us here, so they won't know who we really are."

"And I won't be seen at all, since I'll be hidden for most of the job," Beau added, looking to Nack. "But we can't just leave you behind."

"You're not leaving me behind," Nack replied.

"So, you want to get caught?" asked Manuel.

"No," Nack said. "If I get caught, then I get caught. If my men can kill those four pests, then we're fine. If not and they chase me, then I want all of you to do what I just told you to do."

"Who do you have in line to try and take them out?" asked Manuel.

"Myself, my two friends here," Nack said, using his hands to gesture to his henchmen, "and the good old boys in brown of Westopolis Police Department."

"Is there enough of them to take out those four?" asked Lara.

"It might not be the most morally aligned police force," Nack said, "but they have a lot of men who are willing to play dirty. And all of those men have access to police grade weaponry."

"And they have some military hardware too," Manuel grinned.

"Yes they do," Nack smiled back. "Now, are you all apologetic for doubting me in the first place?"

"We are," said Beau. "Sorry. There were just a lot of factors that didn't make sense at first."

"We do need to get a handle on the Green Hill docks situation, though," Manuel pointed out.

Nack nodded. "Indeed we do. The drugs being pushed there are slowing down. We need to stop moving out stuff out there."

Beau nodded. "I'll talk it over with my guys. Where do you want me to move it?"

"Star Light," Nack said. "We push Manuel's guns there anyway, so why not add your concoctions to the mix?"

"And my girls stay put, right?" Lara asked.

Nack nodded again. "Human, or in this case, Mobian trafficking, is not something that I look upon fondly. Your girls make enough money here, as much as I would like to spread them to other cities."

"Well, most of my girls are used to hearing the word spread," Lara chuckled.

"Um... Nack?" asked a timid voice.

The purple weasel's head moved up to see Lisa bringing over their food and laying it down for them. "Hello, my dear," he smiled. "How are you?"

"I... wanted to thank you for what you did last night..." she smiled, walking over to sit on his lap.

Nack smiled. "It was no problem. Luckily, they were all dumb enough to hang around in the same place for too long."

Lisa ground against Nack's lap and got off of him soon after. "Maybe I could thank you more privately later?"

"I'd like that," Nack nodded.

"Good. I'll see you then." Lisa turned to walk away, but then stopped. "And I'll do anything that you want for free tonight. As a thank you."

Nack cocked an eyebrow, looking to Lara. "This okay with you?"

The tigress shrugged. "It's a policy here. You help a girl with something personal, you get a free ride, as it were."

"Well, that is a damn good policy," Nack chuckled, turning to Lisa. "You've got a deal."

Lisa gave a nod, walking away with a jaunt in her step, causing Beau to chuckle. "Man... Lara, you certainly do have the best girls that I've ever seen."

Lara smiled. "Thank you, Beau."

"Wow," said Manuel. "That might be the first time that I've heard Lara compliment Beau."

"It is a rarity, but it happens," Nack chuckled. "Back to lunch?"

The others nodded, turning their focus back to their food. Soon, they had all finished, even Nack's henchmen, and a couple of Lara's girls came to pick up the empty plates and pieces of trash to put away, but Manuel stood up.

"I've got it," he said. "I don't mind."

"You looking for a free ride tonight too, Manuel?" Lara teased.

The bull chuckled. "Not at all. Just wanting to offer some help wherever I can."

The two girls smiled and kissed either of the bull's cheeks in thanks as he went about putting the trash away. Nack looked over at his friend, smiling. "I often worry that he's way too nice to be in this line of work."

"Try saying something bad about his girls, and he'll probably prove your worrying wrong," said Beau.

"I'm not that stupid," Nack chuckled as Manuel soon returned.

"Well, it was fun," said Manuel, "but I should be heading back now."

"As should I," Beau added. "Got a big batch of Fokus to begin pushing out soon." He turned to Nack. "Thanks for getting the spare ingredients to us, by the way."

"No issue, my friend," Nack smiled. "I'd also best be leaving. Whilst I didn't expect to see you all here, I can't say that it was unpleasant."

"Before you guys leave," said Lara, "I'd like to talk with you more privately in my office, if you have the time."

Beau hesitated before nodding. "I guess my guys are still under the influence long enough."

"Yeah, and I've got enough men to watch over my fights too," said Manuel. "They can do without me for a little bit more."

Nack turned to his two henchmen before turning back to Lara. "You want these guys to come too?"

"I don't see why not," the tigress replied. "You're probably going to tell them all of this anyway."

The purple weasel chuckled. "Good point."

They all stood up, walking out of the kitchen and finding their way up the stairs to Lara's office, with the woman herself leading the way. She opened the door, letting the others enter first before walking in, sitting at her desk.

"Sorry about the lack of seats," she said. "I was so focused on buying nice pieces of ass that I wasn't so focused on buying pieces of furniture on where to rest your own asses."

"I don't mind standing," Nack said. "Beau, Manuel, take the seats."

The snake and bull nodded, not arguing as the former spoke. "So, why did you want to see us privately?"

"I want to go over Nack's plan better," said Lara. "If that's fine with you."

The purple weasel nodded. "Is there a problem with my plan?" he asked, more concerned than threatening.

"I'm just worried..." she said.

Manuel nodded, understanding. "You don't want to bring this up in front of your girls, right?"

Lara nodded. "Right." She sighed. "I'm just trying to think... what could be the worst case scenario? Like, what would happen if we fuck this up?"

"Lara, relax," Nack said. "You, Manuel, and Beau aren't recognised in any other criminal databases except maybe the one for Westopolis. And even then, that's a long shot."

"I think that what she means is," Beau said, "we could wind up in the wrong criminal database if we do this the wrong way."

"We know that it's risky, before you start that again," Manuel said. "But if I get caught, what happens to my girls? My men? And my guns?"

"What about my drugs and areas?" Beau asked. "I ain't as emotionally attached, but I still have people to look after."

Nack nodded. "I know, guys. And I also know that, if the shit goes sour, I can't take control over the other parts of Westopolis, especially now that we're starting to spread out more." He then looked to Lara. "And I understand that you're worried about your girls more than anything."

Lara nodded. "I am. They... well, they are pussy. But they're more than just that. More than giving them jobs that satisfy multiple people, I want to provide a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. I want to give them a family."

"What if one of them winds up pregnant?" Beau asked.

Lara let out a chuckle. "I don't think that there's a red-blooded man or Mobian in all of Westopolis who's emotionally involved enough to stick around for that. I mean, heck, it happened with my own father."

"We don't want more runaways," Nack said. "If Lara is to stay in business, especially when it has yet to fully boom, then we need to hope that the guys wrap it up."

"It is extra for no safety," said Lara. "Luckily, most men are willing to pay that much."

"And women too, right?" Manuel asked.

Lara laughed. "Damn right."

Nack chuckled. "I hate to ruin this moment, but we need to focus here."

Lara took a breath and nodded. "The thing is, I really want the plan to go well. And, yes, all of your other plans have usually gone well. But if you can't kill four rookie cops on their first day, how the hell are we going to manage this altogether?"

"Not to mention that he can't go over there himself," added Beau. "It makes sense, though. He did just run from there to here."

Lara smiled, turning to Nack. "I know that you want this to all go down well, but... I can't shake this worrying feeling..."

Nack nodded. "I know. You want your girls to be looked after if it all goes to shit, right?" He turned to Beau and Manuel. "And I trust that you two want the same?"

They both nodded, with the bull speaking first. "We either do this perfectly, or not at all."

"Then put your trust in me for this plan," Nack said, "and it will be done perfectly."

"I think that we're doubting Nack a bit too harshly here," said Beau. "Just because his plan to kill those cops fell through doesn't mean that this one will."

"Well, now you've jinxed it," the purple weasel chuckled. "But, yes, I will keep things all set up. We have a lot of good men coming, and I only ask that we all take extra precautions." He turned to Manuel. "So, do I have your promise that you'll have an arrangement set up to get more weapons?"

"It might be cutting it close, but I'll give it a shot," Manuel said with a nod.

"I truly do appreciate it," Nack said, turning to Beau. "And can you bring in some extra drugs for them?"

"Why would I need to do that?" Beau asked.

"When we get those men over here, we may need to put them to work quickly," Nack said simply, turning to Lara. "And that's where you also come in."

Lara raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Nack sighed. "This isn't easy to say, and I doubt that it'll be any easier for you to hear, but... your place is the biggest of all of ours put together. Not even my prison can compete with this."

"You want me to bring guns and drugs into my brothel?" asked Lara.

"Wouldn't be the worst thing that's been in here..." Beau said under his breath, earning a glare from Nack.

"I know that it's a lot to ask, and I don't want you to think of this as you owing me just because of last night." Nack sighed. "You know that I wouldn't ask this of anyone at this table otherwise."

Lara sighed. "I know..." She shook her head. "I guess that I could give the men that you're bringing over rooms."

"So, why the baddies from Green Hill specifically?" asked Beau. "Will mine and Manuel's men need to shack up here too?"

"No," Nack shook his head. "Just the ones that we can bring over. Your men will need to stay put." He turned to Manuel. "Same goes for you too."

Manuel nodded, turning to Lara. "I've got too many guys where I am," he said.

"And my own place is too small," Beau added. "It wouldn't be any good."

"Suffice to say, but yours is the only place where we can hide them," Nack said. "And when the freelancers follow, they won't hurt your girls."

"That's if they're smart enough to come up here," Lara said.

"Which they won't be," Nack assured. "I'm calling them up for myself alone. The Westopolis police station is closest to me, after all."

The tigress nodded. "All right. All right, I'll find your men a place to hole up when you bring them over."

Nack smiled. "Thank you, Lara."

"Anything else?" she asked. "Would you like me to find a place for your two bodyguards as well?"

Nack looked back and forth over his two men before turning his attention back to Lara and shaking his head. "Nope. Just the ones that we bring over from Green Hill."

Lara nodded. "Seems fair." She chuckled. "I'm sorry for the hesitance before."

"It's fine," Nack said. "No doubt that the other two were feeling the same."

"Eh, we've got some rushes to do, but the new guys aren't coming over to bother us, so we'll be fine," Beau replied, turning to Lara. "Having said all of that, I do hope that it all goes well for you and your girls."

"Same here," Manuel added. "I'll make sure that your girls have guns to protect themselves if they need it."

"Maybe not that far," Lara said. "Melee weapons, maybe?"

The bull chuckled. "I'll see what I can get my hands on."

Nack smiled. "So, we're all in agreement with the plan so far?"

"Hey, as long as the pay is good and we all keep our own bits of land," Beau said, "I'm cool with it."

"I do wonder why you might be willing to get caught out," Manuel said to Nack as they all stood up. "Surely, this plan would be more flawless if you didn't get caught at all."

"It's like I said," Nack shrugged, "if it happens, it happens. I'm not the important factor in the plan, after all. I came up with it, yes, but you three are the ones with the biggest roles to play." He chuckled. "And tomorrow, I'll be the one to open up the curtains for you."

"It's rare for you to use such analogies," said Lara. "But I do appreciate it, along with your helping me."

Nack nodded. "It's to help all of us, remember?" He turned to walk away, followed by the others. "Remember, the fake ID cards are the biggest key to all of this, and they're not easy to forge, even in this city."

"How are they coming along, by the way?" asked Manuel.

"I have no clue," Nack said. "Martin said that he'd tell me when they're done. I gave him yours and Lara's pictures for reference, along with all of the other important information."

"It'd better come soon," Beau said. "Tomorrow ain't too far away, and I have a tendency to get antsy when it comes to stuff like this."

Nack chuckled. "I'll make sure that it's all sorted, along with extra cash for you guys in your accounts."

"Let's just try to keep our heads on straight," Manuel said. "I sure hope that my acting is good enough to fool the cops tomorrow, though."

"Are you kidding me? With your handsome face?" Lara smiled. "You've got nothing to worry about."

The bull chuckled. "I appreciate it, senorita."

They all shared a laugh as they reached the door, with Nack letting Beau, Manuel, and his own two henchmen out first. He watched the snake and the bull go over to their vehicles, wondering how he didn't notice them earlier before snapping his fingers.

"I still need to check up on mine," he said.

"Well, whatever car you so choose, be sure that it's a good one," Lara smiled. "I assume that we are using it for tomorrow, yes?"

"You assume correctly," Nack smiled. "Any specific style that you prefer?"

"I don't do cars," Lara shrugged. "But I'm thinking something versatile. It's got to be quick enough to get us in and out of there, as well as hide an extra body. Not to mention the others that we need too."

"I'm setting up some cars for Manuel's men too," Nack said. "I'm thinking maybe two more extra to follow will help."

Lara nodded. "That's reasonable enough," she smiled. "Should keep us protected, and have enough to bring the others back."

"If all else fails, we'll take the transfer vehicle," said Nack. "That'll not only be big enough, but will make the trap setup more believable."

"Smart thinking," Lara giggled.

Nack smiled in thanks, and then turned to the tigress. They both moved in and shared a kiss with each other. Not overly passionate, but more reassuring if anything. The mingling of their mouths didn't last long, and they broke it, with Nack going to his car. He waved at Beau and Manuel as they did the same before taking off, and then he turned to Lara, giving her one last goodbye wave before getting back into his own car.

"That was some good lunch," said the passenger.

"It was indeed," said the driver, turning to Nack and starting up the car. "What now?"

As it started, he smiled to himself. "Straight back home, boys. We've got some last minute preparations to make for tomorrow."

The two henchmen nodded, soon pulling out into the main road and making their way for the prison. As they did, Nack saw Lara waiting at the door of her brothel still, waving to Nack, who waved back, smiling to himself more as the car took off back to the prison.

* * *

 **And here it is! Another one is finally up! I hope that you guys enjoyed it. We build ever closer still to the prison transfer in Green Hill. Sick bars for days there, son. Anyway, the next chapter will be a little bit more experimental. It will be filler, so just some warning, but I want to test something out with it, so... yeah. Until next time, take care, and stay tuned.**


	31. Good Help Can Be Hard To Find

Shade took a breath as she reached her kickboxing school, looking to her phone quickly before she left the taxi that dropped her off. "Thanks!" she said, hurriedly throwing some money to him.

"You take care now!" the driver said as he took off.

Shade waved and shook her head at her phone, sending a quick text. "Knuckles, I miss you, and I won't be home until late. My job kept me back for a little bit to cover someone else's shift, and now I'll have to train late at my school to make up for it. Sorry. I love you."

She hit send and looked up at the building of her kickboxing class. It was actually a full MMA-style gym, but she herself enjoyed kickboxing the most. She had dabbled in other arts, and was considering adding a grappling style as well, but she was fine where she was.

The building itself was a marvel of stone and brick, painted over and covered up well enough in various shades of grey. The building's title read Green Hill Titan Gym in large red letters, and there was a graphic of two fists bumping each other in the background of it.

Shade took a breath and walked into the building proper, thankful that she had her uniform with her, and even more thankful that her retail job allowed her to wear casual clothes. She saw her mentor and the other students - a mixture of Mobians and humans - all training with each other in sparring sessions, with one side attacking and the other using protective pads.

Shade's teacher spotted her, and waved her over. "Shade!" he called out. He was a human being who stood a solid 6'4, and his muscled frame was covered by the gi that he wore, which was all black with the exception of a red belt around the waist. He was in his early forties, and his naturally black hair was slightly greying, couple with a short beard suffering a similar fate. Lastly were a pair of dark eyes, which were surprisingly kind despite their colour.

"Sorry I'm late, sensei," Shade said.

"Please, just call me Thompson," he smiled.

"The formality is a force of habit by this point," Shade shrugged.

Thompson chuckled. "So, what happened?"

"I got held back at work to cover another person's shift," Shade answered. "Luckily, my boss was nice enough to pay me a bit extra for the overtime."

"Well, you'll have to put that work ethic to good use," Thompson said. "You know the drill."

Shade sighed. "I'm sorry. But I know that there's no point in making excuses."

Thompson nodded. "How's Knuckles and the others?"

"They're doing well," Shade said. "They had a pretty good showing last night."

"Oh yeah, I heard something about that," the sensei chuckled. "One of the other students here gushed about it."

"It's nice to know that they're reaching people like that," Shade smiled.

"Indeed it is," Thompson agreed. "Anyway, go and get dressed. Lessons will be the usual fare for you, but doubled to make up for lost time."

Shade nodded. She gave another thank you to her sensei, then headed over to the girls' locker room. As she went there, she looked over the building's interior, smiling at what it had, from pads to heavy bags to all sorts of other gym equipment. Besides Thompson, there were various other teachers and coaches around, also red belts. Judo, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, karate... all kinds of other martial arts were being taught, and taught well.

She reached the locker room and opened up her locker to put her clothes into it, those being a black button up t-shirt over a metal inspired purple tank top, along with dark blue jeans and black sneakers. She put those away into her locker and started to get changed into her gi. Whereas their teacher's gis were often black with a red belt, which went for all martial arts teachers, the students' ones were typically white with black stripe going up the sides and circling the bottoms of the trousers and the sleeves of the shirt, with another stripe of black along the hem of the top.

Shade slipped into the uniform, adding the black shoes and gloves that was typical of a kickboxing uniform, and finally added her green belt around her waist. Instead of going back out there, she remained put, throwing some punches into thin are, getting a quick warm-up in.

Soon, she heard Thompson call her name from outside. "Shade!" he yelled.

"I'm coming!" the orange echidna replied. She left through the door and saw some of the students sparring, but others were waiting their turn.

"All right, Shade," Thompson said. "You're in there with Garrett."

Shade turned to the Mobian in question, seeing a salamander with greyish scales and black eyes, who nodded cordially to Shade. "Good to see that you finally showed up."

"Sorry," Shade said. "I was busy working at my real job which pays me actual money."

"Take it easy on the college kid here," Thompson chuckled.

Shade smiled and shared a fist bump with Garrett. "How's the other half?"

"Eh, he's good," Garrett smiled. "How about your hunk?"

"You already have a hunk of your own," Shade playfully reminded.

"Humour me."

"He's doing fine," Shade smiled. "Still with me, so that's a good sign. And I saw the news this morning."

"I'm starting to think that we all did," Garrett chortled. "He and the others did some awesome stuff last night."

"They always do," Shade chuckled. "So, which ring should we go to?"

"How about the only one that's not occupied?" Garrett asked.

Shade turned to see several combat rings, all of which were taken up... except for one, where both students had shaken hands after a sparring bout. They both left it, spotting Shade and stepping aside to let her use the ring that they had just finished using.

"There's a free one," Shade said.

"How kind of them to keep the door open for us," Garrett chuckled as he and Shade went to said ring. "So, how do you want to do this?"

"You don't mind wearing pads, do you?" Shade said. "I really need to practise on my spinning back kicks to the body."

Garrett nodded. "You are a lot more used to going high with your shots, so I see your point."

They both reached the ring, entering thanks to the former participants holding the ropes open. Shade got set up in one corner, keeping herself warmed up with some air striking as Garrett got the pads ready, strapping a large one around his body, and attaching smaller ones to his legs before adding the hitting pads to his hands.

"No headgear?" Shade asked.

"You won't be going high all that often," Garrett said. "Besides, the pads can take your shots, as powerful as they are. I don't have to worry too much."

"Just remember to hold the pads up," Shade said.

Garrett nodded, stepping back and holding the pads out. Instead of going straight for the move that Shade wanted to practise, they decided to get some basic boxing combos in first, with Shade landing good mixtures of her shots. Garrett swiped the pads back over so that she could evade and strike them with uppercuts.

"There we go," Garrett said. "Just remember to see the bigger stuff up with the smaller shots, okay? Couple of jabs, then a straight, then counter hook."

Shade complied, throwing the two jabs first before throwing a straight right. Garrett swiped the pad back over, and the orange echidna ducked. When the pad came back around, she struck it with a vicious hook.

Garrett then held the remaining boxing pad up and faced the front of it down, and Shade nodded. She started the combo again, but this time, instead of a hook, she threw an uppercut, causing Garrett to applaud her.

"Good work there!" the salamander smiled. "All right... kicking time now. Start with some low stuff to set up the flashy stuff, okay?"

"Okay," Shade nodded, throwing some practise low kicks.

"So, why do you want to learn this kick so badly?" Garrett asked.

Shade shrugged, throwing some more kicks before throwing a side one to the front of Garrett's protected torso. "I need to work on my spinning stuff, I guess. That, and I want to make up for being late today."

"Ah, I get it," Garrett nodded. "But sensei knows why you came late. You don't have to punish yourself too badly with a technique that you're unfamiliar with."

Shade gave a nod. "I know. But I need to work on my spinning stuff, and it's best to start low before I work my way up high."

Garrett chuckled. "For what it's worth, you've got damn good kicks when you're throwing straight forward. If you can keep that force with the flashy shit, you'd be well away."

"It's the balance too," said Thompson, looking over to them. "A spinning attack is no joke. If you're not using the right amount of balance, then it could go badly."

Garrett hung his head. "That was one time..."

"And your leg almost flew out of its socket because you overshot," Thompson pointed out.

Shade stopped her striking and looked at Garrett. "When did this happen?"

"It was before you started training here," Garrett said. "I jumped the gun a bit early in wanting to train my spinning stuff, and I didn't listen."

"Is that why you're the same belt level as me still?" Shade asked.

Garrett nodded. "Part that, and part me taking a break away from it for a couple of weeks to rehabilitate my leg."

"How bad was the damage?" Shade asked.

"It was mostly pulled muscle," Thompson said. "That and he almost broke one of his toes."

"It was the big one, though," Garrett reminded.

"Oh, you brave soul," Shade joked.

"See?" the salamander said to Thompson. "She gets it!"

"You've been here for a month and a half longer than Shade," Thompson said. "Don't push it." He turned to Shade. "Same goes for you. Just be careful with the spinning stuff, okay?"

Shade nodded. "I'll try."

Thompson nodded. "As you were."

Shade shrugged, turning back to Garrett. "Same as last time?"

"Yep," Garrett replied. "Low kicks, and set up to the body. And try to mask a punch with a low kick too. That can throw someone off if they're not ready for it."

"But you'll be expecting it now," Shade chuckled. "What'd be the point?"

Garrett smirked. "Just try it, okay? Besides, that's another point worth working on."

Shade nodded, not arguing as she knew that it was another thing to work on. She did practise sometimes with Knuckles before, but because of him hanging at his new headquarters, she didn't have as much time.

She sighed and shrugged it off before going back to work. She swung a few kicks on the outside of Garrett's legs, before throwing a right inside kick, pulling away, and landing a lunging right straight to the body pad.

"Went low, huh?" Garrett smiled. "Good going. You don't see that often."

"You said that I had to mask the punch," Shade chuckle. "You didn't say where I had to punch you."

"My teaching methods sure are getting sloppy, if that's the case," Garrett smiled, putting the pads back up. "Again."

Shade quickly repeated the process, landing small inside leg kicks before feigning an outside one on her left side, only to side step and land a side kick to the body. She followed that up with a right hook over the top, with Garrett just barely bringing the pads up in time to block it.

"Nice!" Garrett praised. "Very good going there!"

"Sorry if I went too quick," said Shade.

"It's not a problem," Garrett said. "That was a good combo. You mixed it up well, faking the leg kick, going for the body kick, and that flow right into the hook was just beautiful."

"I learned it from my worse half," Shade chuckled. "He's better at punching. I'm better at kicking."

"I dunno," Garrett shrugged. "You've got some mean shots with your hands. When you can put it all together, you're like a whirlwind."

Shade chuckled. "Think that should be my nickname if I try for a tournament?"

"Shade the Whirlwind Echidna?" Garrett smiled. "Actually, it's got a nice ring to it, I think."

Shade smiled. "Thanks. Now, let's get back to work."

Garrett nodded. "Try firing from a distance. Use push kicks and outside leg shots, throw some straights and jabs if need be, then time the spinning shots, okay?"

The orange echidna nodded in reply, staying back. She followed her friend's orders, throwing some straight push body kicks. She then took another step back after getting too close, deciding on throwing the outside leg kicks instead. She feinted one of her left kicks and flickered it into a straight shot to the stomach, and Garrett nodded in acknowledgement, sharing a high-five with Shade.

"That's what I wanted to see more of," Garrett smiled. "Try going up high a bit, okay? Throw some straights, fake one, go for a hook, and try to follow through with a spinning shot. Do you think that you can do that?"

Shade nodded. "Yeah. I think that I can do that."

The salamander nodded, backing away again. He held the pads up for Shade to throw her combos, which she did. She started with jabs, firing and doubling up before adding a straight, keeping that combo going for a little while.

"Good," Garrett said. "That's what an opponent could be expecting. Keep this combo up, and then feint and throw that hook, okay?"

Shade gave a nod of her own, keeping the same combo going before faking a jab and firing over the top with a left hook. Garrett clapped the pads briefly as a sign of praise before putting them back up, asking for more variations of the combos. And Shade did not disappoint, landing hooks, crosses, uppercuts, and even a few overhand shots as well.

"See that?" Garrett said, panting after blocking so many shots in a row. "You need to do that, but with your kicks, okay?"

"Got it," Shade nodded. "And like you said earlier: throw some jabs and straights, fake, hook, spinning shot."

Garrett smiled. "You're getting the hang of it."

Shade chuckled and backed away again, setting herself up. She threw some more jab-jab-straight combos, then following through with a faked jab and coming through it with a hook. Garrett gave a nod, indicating that Shade was on the right track with it. So, she took a breath and kept at the combo, never faltering with it. Jab, jab, straight, fake a jab, left hook, rinse and repeat.

"Remember to keep those hooks on the outside, okay?" Garrett reminded. "If you want to turn your hips to throw that spinning kick, you need to give yourself space. Move in and out like a sniper."

Shade chuckles. "One of Knuckles' buddies actually specialises as their sniper."

"Really?" Garrett smiled. "Neat." His face quickly turned back to serious mode. "All right, let's get back to it."

Shade nodded, repeating the same combo as last time, but making sure that she was just outside of the reach of Garrett. He threw some counters of his own, but they were moving slow on purpose like earlier so that Shade could catch on to it.

Shade kept that in mind after landing her combos, even switching up which hook she would use for the setup to the spinning kick. Since she was better on her right side, it made more sense in her mind to throw the left hook first and then a right spinning kick.

"You okay there?" asked Garrett.

"Huh?" Shade replied, noticing that she'd slowed. "Oh, I'm fine. Just trying to think about which side I want to throw this shot from."

"Right side makes more sense," Garrett said. "You're naturally an orthodox style fighter, and even though the left hook won't wind up as much from it, the spinning back kick from your right side will flow better and do more damage, especially since you keep it locked and loaded."

"He's right," Thompson said. "Your stance is very important in how you fight. As an orthodox, you favour the right side of your body, and because your right fist and right leg are pushed back, they do more damage when thrown. Likewise if you were a southpaw fighter, but that would be the left side instead."

Shade nodded. "Is it possible to pull it off from both sides?"

"How do you mean?" Thompson asked back.

"Like, fire a right hook, and then a right spinning back kick?"

Thompson stroked his beard. "Maybe so. It could force your opponent to do a double-take, since they will be hit from the left with a right hook but then get a spinning kick to the right. The only problem is that it doesn't flow as well as with a left hook/right spinning kick combo."

"He's right," Garrett said, stepping out of the ring to give the orange echidna some space. "Try it yourself. Do both shots from the right first."

Shade nodded, setting up her combo before throwing a right hook, and then turning into the spinning back kick. She felt more strain from doing it that way, stepping back quickly. "Okay..." she said, "I think that I get your point..."

Thompson nodded. "Good. Now, do the same, but left hook first, then right kick."

Shade nodded. She set up her combo with the jabs and straights again before following through with a left hook. After that, she turned effortlessly into the right spinning back kick, landing back on her foot with little effort, finding it much easier than her previous attempt.

"That's the ticket!" Garrett beamed. "All right, that's what you've got to land on me, okay?"

"Left hook, right spin kick?" Shade said.

"That's the one," Garrett replied, putting his pads back up. "And sorry for putting you through the other things. It's impossible to fully learn any one technique in just a day, let alone one as complicated as that."

"I know," Shade nodded, readying her stance once more. "It was also to find the best angle, right? It'll work from some places, but not all..."

"You sure know a lot about the angles," Garrett complimented.

"I've got good teachers and classmates," Shade chuckled. "I'm also a huge MMA fan."

The salamander let out a laugh of his own, silently gesturing for Shade to resume her striking. Shade nodded, and went over earlier's process; jab/straight combos, some leg kicks, then follow up with a hook.

She did this several times, focusing more on landing her left hook, despite it not having as much force behind it. Still, she hit as hard as she could with it, turning her hips ever so slightly each time in the hopes of following up with the spinning back kick.

'Got to time it right,' Shade said in her mind. 'Just need to keep watch of the distance. Too close, and I'll hit him with the back of my knee at best. Too far, I won't even clip him with my toes.' She bounced back and forth a bit more as she kept striking. 'Movement, footwork, timing...'

Garrett kept blocking, noticing Shade starting to use her movements a lot more than earlier. "You're getting the hang of it," he smiled. "Go for some outside leg kicks too. That can really throw someone off if they're not ready for it."

Shade simply nodded in answer, moving around more and landing leg kicks whilst also sticking to her combo. She even switched up the last strike from time to time, landing with her right hook or an uppercut, knowing that the left hook combo was her endgame.

She soon fell into a rhythm with it as well, and she picked up speed as she went, but didn't blitz on Garrett and gave him time to defend the strikes. She went for her combo several times with the left hook, trying to get a feel for it, smiling as she found a home for it.

'I think that I've got this...' she said in her mind again. 'I'm almost there... one last try should do it...'

So, she listened to her mind's advice. She began the combo all over again; two left jabs, both landing quick and clean; a right straight as she moved to her left, glancing off one of the pads; an inside left leg kick as she kept moving, darting back a bit; and finally, she moved back in with the left hook, and instantly turned her hips and body around to land the right spinning back kick, the heel of her shoe connecting perfectly with the front of Garrett's thankfully protected stomach.

She landed her foot back down and smiled, exhausted. "I did it!"

Garrett laughed and hugged her. "That's the one, Shade! Timing, movement, angles... you were slowly building that all up, and you came through hard with that shot."

"You might want to check for bruises there, Garrett," Thompson chuckled. "She landed that shot clean on you."

Shade and Garrett both paid a respectful bow to their master before the orange echidna spoke first. "Thank you for your advice, sensei."

"Well, you're welcome, but my advice was just advice," Thompson smiled, bowing back. "It was you who landed the blow. It was Garrett who guided you through it. I merely kept watch from where I was."

"It's still appreciated," Shade chuckled. "Don't put yourself down like that."

"I won't," Thompson smiled. "I'm not a ten time kickboxing champion for nothing," he chuckled. "Anyway, speaking of appreciation, you two have earned yourselves a little break."

"Well, it is almost lunch," Garrett said as he removed his hand pads. "You want to join us?"

Thompson shook his head. "I would, but no. I'll leave you two to it. I can eat later."

"Well, thanks," Shade said as she and Garrett stepped out of the ring.

The two kept their gis and shoes on, but took off their gloves as they headed for the nearby cafeteria that was part of the gym. It consisted mostly of healthy foods, but there was some sweeter stuff on the line as well.

"I'm so lucky that we don't have to pay for our own food," Garrett smiled. "Thompson's one rich old man."

"Thinking about a sugar daddy, are we?" Shade teased as they reached the cafeteria.

"Eh, I don't do humans," the salamander chuckled. "That beard of his is rather nice, though."

Shade shook her head. "Let's get some food, you. Day's not over yet."

Garrett nodded as they looked over the food on the counter, turning back to Shade. "Hey."

"Yeah?" Shade asked.

"You did a good job out there," Garrett smiled. "You're starting to find your balance more, and your combo fluidity is without question. If you keep up your pace, you'll be a blue belt in no time."

Shade smiled. "I'm just surprised I got to where I was so quickly," she said, looking at the salamander's own belt, which was purple.

"You're putting the work in," Garrett shrugged. "Nothing to be surprised about."

"Still, I've got good teachers," Shade smiled. "And good friends."

Garrett put an arm around Shade's shoulders. "And we're going to do our damnedest to help you rise through the ranks."

"I know," Shade smiled and nodded. "Still, the day ain't over, and I've got some serious overtime to clock in."

"Then we'd best stop wasting time and get our grub," Garrett chuckled.

Shade laughed in reply and nodded, and the two went about sorting their food out.

 **Meanwhile, back at the freelancer headquarters...**

Sonic was lifting a dark blue jacket over his shoulders. "Everyone ready to go?"

The others nodded as they put on their own jackets and hoodies, with Tails speaking first. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"Look, we have friends on the force," Sonic said. "Asking them to spot us won't be too much trouble."

"And like Sonic said," Knuckles added, "it shouldn't be all of us that go."

"If not all of us are going to check out the situation at the Star Light docks," Shadow pondered aloud, "then why are we all getting dressed to go out?"

"It's just to see who they think would be best to help," Sonic shrugged.

"And who are we going to see, exactly?" Tails asked.

"I'm thinking Bunnie and Antoine," Sonic said. "They run the tech over in that place, anyway. It wouldn't take much for them to get their hands on a van."

"How are we going to get their help without dropping them in the shit?" Knuckles asked. "They can't run an op outside of Green Hill."

"They won't have to," Sonic grinned. "That's where Tails comes in."

"I come in?" the yellow fox asked. "How? What do I do?"

"That is something that'll have to wait," Sonic said, looking at his phone to check the time. "We're burning daylight. Let's get going."

The others simply gave frustrated sounds of acknowledgement or agreement before leaving out the front with Sonic leading them. They went over to Knuckles' car, and the red echidna instantly hopped into the driver's seat, starting it up as Tails joined him in the front of the car.

"It just feels right to be in this seat sometimes," Tails chuckled.

"As team leader, it's my duty to allow my subordinates to take the shotgun seat," Sonic said, putting on a terrible British accent and laughing before shaking his head and returning to his normal voice. "Eh, that ain't it. I just ain't fast enough."

"Well, it is an honour and a privilege to serve under your rule," Tails smiled.

Sonic nodded, turning to Knuckles. "Knuckles! Whip the horses!"

The red echidna shook his head and started the engine. "Um... horses ready? I dunno. I'm done playing this game."

"Me too," Tails said. "Let's just go."

Sonic nodded. "Fair enough."

The car then started, quickly pulling out of their alleyway and into the main street, making way for their former police station. Sonic took note of the weather starting to grow darker, shaking his head as he saw a few droplets connect on the window next to him.

"Looks like we should have brought our umbrellas," he noted. "Starting to shower a bit."

"We'll be okay," said Shadow. "We'll be out of here and into the station quickly enough to not have to worry."

"I know," Sonic agreed. "I just hope that this doesn't last through to the night as well."

"Considering what we're going to be doing tonight, I don't blame you," Tails replied. "Rain is not ideal weather for a stakeout."

"We still haven't decided who's going to be doing that, by the way," Shadow reminded. "But, then again, we'll find out when we get there, right?"

"Right," Sonic nodded. "Just have a little faith in me, okay? I'm someone you can trust."

"We know," Knuckles said. "But if this plan of yours doesn't work and we get fired as freelancers, I'm going to place my own bounty on your head and kill you myself."

"Why would you want your own fifty bucks from him?" Shadow asked, hooking a thumb to Sonic.

"Hey, watch it," the blue hedgehog replied as he and the others laughed.

"I wonder when we'll be able to actually do that, though," Tails said.

"I think we went over it before," Sonic shrugged. "Maybe these backup missions are our bounties. We get paid for doing them, after all."

"True, but... that's as backup," Tails reminded. "I get that we're pretty much under probation after what happened, but how much longer will it take for that ban to be lifted?"

"What are you saying, exactly?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm saying that, and I know that we have gone over this, but I think that we're better off as freelancers," Tails said. "If we get our jobs back... well, I don't know if I want that."

"Well, how about this," said Sonic. "All four of us, right here, right now, we make a pledge. No matter what happens, whether we want to go back to being cops or stay as freelancers with more free choice, we support each other as friends. Fair?"

"Fair," Shadow nodded.

"Yeah, I'm with you," Tails added on with a shrug.

Knuckles smirked. "Oh, you already know that I'm all in."

Sonic chuckled. "Good."

He laid back and relaxed for the rest of the drive, which didn't take too long. Knuckles soon found a parking space to leave his car for the time being, killing the engine. He was the last to exit, the others waiting for him as they headed into the building proper.

"Hey, guys!" Mina said from behind the counter. "What can I do for you?"

"Where's Cosmo at?" Tails asked.

"I thought that you'd ask," Mina giggled. "Bathroom break."

"Ah."

"Want to go say hi to Avery?" asked Mina. "He's in his office, but I can give him a phone call and let him know that you're on your way."

"We're not here to see him," Sonic said. "Are Antoine and Bunnie in?"

Mina nodded. "They're up in their room. Got some paperwork to work on together. You know where their room is, right?"

"Yep," Knuckles said. "Same as all the other rooms up there."

"Want me to tell them that you're coming up?" asked Mina.

"Nah, we'll go and surprise them," Sonic smiled. "Come on. Let's get going."

As they were about to head off, the ground floor toilet door opened, and out came Cosmo, smiling at Tails. Tails smiled back, and the two rushed up and gave each other a hug, smiling happily.

"Damn," Knuckles smiled. "Every time that these two see each other, they act like they've never met before."

"I keep getting this odd sense of deja vu from them," Sonic shrugged. "But it is nice to see them like this."

Cosmo and Tails pulled away from the hug and shared a brief kiss on the lips before the yellow fox spoke first. "So, um... how are you?"

"I'm fine," Cosmo smiled. "Had a good day, and it just got better. You?"

"Oh, I'm here with the guys to go and see Bunnie and Antoine," Tails explained.

"Any clue as to why?"

Tails shook his head. "I honestly have no idea. I know that we're here to see them for something, but I don't know what."

The plant girl then turned to Sonic. "Is Tails integral to whatever it is that you've got going on?"

"He's a part of our team, so... yeah," the blue hedgehog nodded. "Look, with any luck, it won't take long. After we've gotten done what needs doing, I'll bring him back down to you in one piece, okay?"

Cosmo nodded in thanks before sharing a brief Eskimo kiss with Tails, who blushed a bit. The two then separated, with Tails heading back over to Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles, whilst Cosmo went back with Mina, joining her behind the desk.

"I swear, seeing you two together never fails to put a smile on my face," Mina giggled.

Cosmo blushed. "Well... what can I say? I mean, he's cute, fluffy, brave, and have you seen those tails?"

"I have indeed," the yellow mongoose nodded. "I also want to bury my face in those, much like you do."

"They do feel nice," Cosmo smiled. "It's weird to feel that way, being a Mobian without animal traits. I guess that's why I like just touching Tails so much, and not just from a physical sense."

Mina nodded. "I understand what you're getting at. It's kind of a new feeling for you, isn't it? I mean, we've hugged and shared high-fives, but there's just something in the way that you and Tails interact that's completely different."

Cosmo smiled and blushed. "Is it too soon to call it love? Like, just full-blown love?"

"Well, you have only known him for a bit over a week," Mina giggled. "But in all honesty, no. I don't think that it's too soon."

"I just hope that he feels the same way..."

"Well, he'd better," Mina said, letting out a small huff of air. "Because there's no way that I'm letting my best friend get her hopes up for nothing."

"You just don't want me eating all of your ice-cream again," Cosmo said.

"Can you blame me?"

"It was one time, and it was an office party," Cosmo shrugged.

"There was about thirty people that could make it, and you had all the ice-cream!" Mina claimed.

"Um... it's sweet like me?"

Mina shook her head, unable to help her laugh. "Yeah, I guess that you have a point." She then hugged her friend from the side, smiling. "Seriously, you deserve to be happy, okay?"

"Thank you," Cosmo smiled. "As do you with Ash."

Mina giggled, nodding. "You got that right."

Meanwhile, Sonic and the group had just reached the third floor, going to the right corridor that had Bunnie and Antoine's room, and heading down it until they'd reached it. Knuckles knocked on the door himself.

"It's open!" said Bunnie from the other side.

Knuckles smiled and knocked again.

Antoine spoke this time. "We said that it's open!" he said.

But the red echidna kept knocking, and Antoine, inside the room, stood up to go and answer it. He was about to shout before he saw who it was, and instead laughed and greeted Knuckles with a hug, smiling as he got a hug back.

"Oh, there y'all are!" Bunnie said, rushing to join in the hug.

They all chuckled at the hug before it broke, with Sonic speaking. "We need to talk to you guys."

"What's up?" Antoine asked.

"We're going to be straight with you," Sonic said. "You may want to sit down for this, though."

"Is Amy pregnant already?" Bunnie asked with a chuckle.

The blue hedgehog shook his head. "I'm fast, but not that fast. And besides, we ain't been seeing each other long, so... it'd be weird."

"Well, what seems to be the issue?" Antoine asked, getting things back on track.

"We got a tip that something might be going down at the Star Light docks," Shadow said.

"What kind of something?" Antoine asked.

"We're thinking maybe weapons," said Knuckles. "Considering that we busted a dude at Green Hill's own docks for having drugs shipped in, this wouldn't surprise me."

"Do you think that there might be more places that they're shipping to?" asked Bunnie.

"Oh, I don't doubt that for a second," Sonic said. "But Star Light and Green Hill are the only ones that we know of so far. Who knows where else their reach goes?"

"Or how far they're reaching from," Antoine surmised. "Do you guys have a clue of where it could be coming from?"

"All signs point to Westopolis," Sonic said. "But we can't go there and handle it ourselves. Hell, we're lucky that we can do this since it won't be a major operation."

"Westopolis meaning Nack, right?" Bunnie asked.

Tails nodded. "It might not just be him, though. We've all looked him up and we know that he has a tendency for planning ahead. But he's got some help over there."

"We just don't know who," Shadow added. "And I'm guessing that drugs and guns aren't being the only thing that Nack is being helped with."

Antoine sighed. "You guys do know that this won't directly lead to Nack, right?"

"We're well aware of that," Sonic smiled. "But we don't care. Regardless of where this puts us, this is a big deal. We just need to keep our heads low and stay quiet about it."

"I get what you mean," Bunnie nodded, "but it might be damn near impossible to get one of our own vans across to Star Light without getting caught."

"Bunnie's got a point," Tails nodded. "Even if it's a minor op, if the vehicle gets caught out, we could get in trouble."

"Not to mention that we shouldn't be doing this in the first place," Shadow said. "We don't get to run our own stuff."

"Which is why it regrets me to even ask this," Sonic sighed. "But we need you two to lie for us."

"I'm sure that Avery would give you guys a full pass on this," Antoine said. "It is only a minor thing."

"It doesn't work that way for freelancers," Tails said. "We can't run anything, and we're just backup. But you guys can run smaller stuff, and you'll be fine."

"And why would we need backup for smaller stuff?" asked Antoine. "Avery could get suspicious."

"Look, it's not a problem," Sonic said. "I get that you're worried, but Avery won't go off on you guys for this. We just need a secure route with the vehicle, and a safe place to do what we're doing."

"And we need to get a pass from Avery on it," Bunnie said. "I'll make sure to include you guys with it."

"Actually, not all of us," Sonic said. "Just Tails and Shadow."

"Why us two specifically?" Tails asked.

"Shadow's got awesome eyesight and accuracy, and you've got brains, technological know-how, and good recall," Sonic pointed out.

"So, he gets three things and I only get two?" Shadow smiled.

"You've got the chest fur too," Knuckles said. "But I'm not too sure as to how that helps in missions..."

"It might distract a bad guy who likes furry things, and then bam!" Tails smiles. "Before that bad guy knows it, he's either dead on the floor or just in a lot of pain and on the floor."

"The point is," Sonic said, bringing things back on track, "we need your help. It's just to look into it, and we won't get involved. And, to make sure of this, Tails and Shadow will go with you to Avery's office."

"It is only fair," said the black and red hedgehog with a nod of agreement. "If myself and Tails are going, it'd be best for Avery to warn Dingo ahead of time."

"Well then," said Bunnie, "I guess that we might as well get started."

"We can't thank you guys enough," Sonic said.

"We know," Antoine chuckled. "Just remember that you gave us your word, okay? No getting directly involved. We watch from afar, we observe, then we report back to Avery, who will tell Dingo."

"And hopefully, that will lead Dingo into telling the good men at Star Light, which will lead to them stopping whatever's going down at the docks there," Sonic smiled. "We owe you guys. Seriously, thank you."

Bunnie smiled and hugged Sonic, and he chuckled and hugged back. They broke from it, and Bunnie spoke. "You gave me a promise hug. That means that y'all have to stick to your word now."

"I was going to anyway, but now I have more reason," the blue hedgehog said. "I wouldn't dare break the pact formed from a Bunnie promise hug."

The southern belle giggled, and they all left the room. They took the elevator up to the fourth floor, where Avery's office was. They knocked on the door, and the commander spoke from the other side.

"It's open," he said.

Bunnie and Antoine stepped in, and the French coyote spoke first. "Sir, we have something to ask you."

"What would that be?" Avery asked, looking up from his laptop.

He got his answer as the freelancers walked in, and Antoine spoke again. "It kind of involves these guys."

Avery chuckled. "This had better be good."

"We got a tip of something important going down in Star Light," Sonic said.

"I know," Avery replied. "I'm watching some of that footage on this here laptop, actually. Good interrogation there."

"So, you know why we're here?" asked Knuckles.

"Not exactly, but I trust that it's for something important." The bear chuckled. "It figures. I got the chance to say goodbye to you as police officers, and now that you're freelance agents, I can't get rid of you."

"We really are a huge pain in the ass sometimes," Sonic shrugged. "But, hey, if it's good enough to beat the bad guys, then who are we to complain?"

"Or to beat good info out of the bad guys," Avery said. "Why exactly are you here, if I may ask?"

"That dude we interrogated gave us a tip of where he got his weapons from," Shadow said. "Apparently, it all came from Star Light, which is where the bad guys were from too."

Avery nodded. "That's interesting..."

"What is?" asked Bunnie.

"Oh, well, criminals don't really have to worry about jurisdictions," Avery shrugged. "Even if they came from Star Light, they can still commit crimes anywhere and be caught for it."

"That does make things pretty fair," Antoine said. "At the same time, it's still kind of an issue for cops who want to chase those criminals into other cities but can't stop them."

"Which is part of why we're here," Sonic said. "We want to confirm if what that Cutler guy said was accurate."

"As much as I want to help you," Avery said, "I can't. It's not my call to send you out to other places."

"It's not us that you have to send out," Sonic smirked.

The commander cocked an eyebrow, but smiled back. "Go on..."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "If what Cutler said is correct, then the Star Light dock deals could be connected to what happened at the Green Hill docks just a few days ago. Only this time, it's guns instead of drugs." Sonic then put his arms around Antoine and Bunnie, side-hugging them both. "And these two fine police officers here are going to scout out Star Light's docks."

Avery chuckled. "You want a free pass, right?"

"We know that you're good friends with Dingo," said Tails. "We really hate to play that card against you, but you know that you're the only one who actually can make this call. And it's not just for us."

Avery nodded. "I can sweeten it as well and send all four of you with them."

"They don't need all of us," said Sonic. "We want Tails and Shadow to go."

"What about you and Knuckles?" asked Avery.

"We hadn't thought that far, actually," Knuckles admitted.

Sonic nodded. "We don't really need to be there. If it's just a stakeout mission, then fewer people are needed. If we can keep our distance, then it won't get messy."

"Still..." Avery said. "I think that you two should go. But in a separate police vehicle."

Sonic sighed and shrugged. "I guess that just because I say it won't get messy doesn't guarantee it."

"On the bright side, if Dingo knows that we're there already, none of us can get in trouble for being in Star Light's jurisdiction," Tail pointed out.

"You really are just an adorable ball of positiveness, aren't you?" Bunnie giggled, playfully pinching the two-tailed fox's cheek.

Sonic looked at Avery. "Well? Do we have the all clear?"

Avery smiled. "You will once I let Dingo know."

Sonic let go of Bunnie and Antoine put his hands together, curling his fingers. "Thank you, man."

"Hey, anything that helps Dingo and helps us at the same time is a win-win," Avery said. He picked up his phone and typed in a number. "Hello, Jeanine? Yes, could you patch me through to Dingo, please? Thank you."

"Avery!" came the Aussie's voice on the other end. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hey, Dingy," Avery chuckled. "Listen, I need a favour."

"Well, I'll help out however you can as long as you never call me Dingy again," Dingo chuckled.

Avery shook his head and smiled. "I need a pass for a couple of my officers, and for Green Hill's freelancers."

"Why? What's up?" Dingo asked.

"We got a tip that someone's trying to smuggle guns at the Star Light docks," Avery answered.

"Didn't something similar happen not long ago at your own docks?" Dingo asked. "I vaguely remember you mentioning it."

"It did indeed," Avery confirmed with a nod. "This can't be a coincidence, especially if the discoveries aren't too far apart."

"Well, do you want me to set some men up to help?" Dingo asked.

"No, that won't be necessary," said Avery. "My own are going to be leading a stakeout mission."

"Oh, yeah," Dingo said. "I forgot that minor ops were allowed in other jurisdictions."

"As did I. You're not alone," Avery chuckled. "And besides, my freelancers will already be backup, so I need passes for all of them."

"Are they all going to be staking the docks out?" the Aussie asked. "It seems a bit much, don't you think?"

"Not all of them," Avery smiled. "Just two of them will be joining who I'm sending. The others will hang back just in case."

"And who are you sending, exactly?" Dingo asked.

"Bunnie and Antoine," Avery said. "They actually handled the camera van last time, but broke off and came back to Green Hill because they didn't want to get in trouble."

"Good thinking," Dingo said. "All right, I'll set you guys up. I'll give you a good location to check the docks from afar."

"Thank you," Avery said. "It's very much appreciated."

"It's no problem at all, mate. I'll see you when I see you," Dingo said.

"Later," Avery replied, hanging up. He looked to the others in his room. "Well, Dingo gave us the go-ahead to do this."

"Thank you," Sonic said.

"It's no problem," Avery spoke. "Now, get on out of here," he joked. As they all turned to leave, Avery called out. "Except for Sonic."

The blue hedgehog shrugged and waved goodbye to the others before turning back to Avery. "What's up?" he asked.

"Sonic... what are you planning?" the commander asked, his voice even and serious.

"I'm just planning to confirm that that bastard's words are true and that somebody is selling down at Star Light."

Avery shook his head. "You do realise that lying to me is ill advised, right? I could just as easily cancel that call to Dingo right now."

Sonic sighed. "What are you getting at?"

"You think that the selling at the docks is connected to Nack, don't you?" Avery said.

Sonic sighed again and nodded. "It... it just reeks of too much coincidence. First, he comes over to Green Hill, and we shut down his deals. He goes on the run, winds up in Star Light, we chase him, but he gets away. He runs off to who knows where, and the only likely place is the one place where nobody wants to step foot." Sonic took a breath. "We know where he is, and if we're right about tonight, then we know what he's doing. Even if it's in two different cities, that doesn't make it any less likely."

Avery nodded. "I understand what you're getting at."

"But?" Sonic pressed.

The bear sighed, standing from his seat. "But you're getting in way over your head. What if you follow this lead and you find him? Then what? What if you have another accident, and this time you won't recover from it because you'll be in a place where nobody will give a shit about what you do?"

"If we had a good lead, then we wouldn't be here asking for your help," Sonic said. "We would have caught that ass-hole right then and there if we had any good leads. We've asked every son of a bitch that we've gone up against, and they're either dead, missing, unresponsive, or telling the truth that they're not connected to Nack at all."

"Even if what Cutler told you was right, and even if it is connected to the Green Hill docks incident, you can't do anything about it," Avery said. "If you even think of it, then you'll be out of a job like this forever."

"Well, it's a shame," Sonic said. "Because I'm better at my job than you are at your job."

"Don't I know it," Avery chuckled. "But you need to be careful, okay? Like it or not, there isn't a damn thing that you can do to stop Nack. And believe me, you have no idea how much I want you to stop that slimy bastard. But you need to be on your toes."

Sonic nodded. "I'll try to be. I just don't want to get caught staying in one place for too long, you know?"

"I know," Avery said. "Now, get out of here before we hug," he joked.

Sonic laughed a bit and gave a fake salute before turning and heading out the door, seeing Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow waiting patiently. Sonic looked around, seeing no sign of Bunnie or Antoine, about to ask why when Knuckles answered his question for him.

"They headed back to their room," the red echidna said. "They're going to get themselves ready for tonight."

"We'd best do the same," Sonic replied. "Let's get back to base."

"What did Avery want to talk about?" Tails asked as they began heading to the elevators.

"He caught on to our little side thing," the blue hedgehog answered honestly. "He knows that we're trying to get to Nack."

"And... what?" Knuckles asked. "Is he cutting us off?"

"No," Sonic shook his head. "No, he wants us to be careful. I know that he doesn't want us doing this, and we could be in some serious shit if we do carry on with it, but... I dunno."

"Maybe he would have done something if he wanted to stop us?" Tails asked as the elevator arrived.

Sonic nodded as they got into the elevator. "That's what I'm thinking. He doesn't want us to chase after Nack, and I can see why." He pressed the button for the ground floor. "And even if we get proof tonight about what's going down at Star Light, we still can't do sweet fuck all about it."

"Then, what do we do?" Shadow asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Just go about it as normal. For now, we just need to head back home and wait until tonight."

"And what if Cutler's tip is right?" asked Tails.

"If it's right, then it's right," Sonic said. "And that's up to the Star Light police to stop. Not us."

"It should be," Knuckles shrugged. "I'm just saying."

Sonic chuckled and nodded in agreement as the elevator reopened its doors, showing them the ground floor. As they passed the girls behind the counter, Tails waved at Cosmo, who blew him a kiss, which he caught with a blush as they all left the doors of the station. They hopped into Knuckles' car, the red echidna starting the vehicle up quickly and pulling out of the parking lot, making his way for the freelancer headquarters.

* * *

 **So, there it is! I did say that this was kind of filler as I wanted to add something new with Shade's training, but I feel like I added a little bit of story too. Either way, I hope that you all enjoyed it. The next chapter will be the last one before Nack springs his huge plan. I wonder how that's going to turn out for our heroes? Regardless, I'll see you all in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	32. I Spy

Back at the freelancer headquarters, Sonic was in the gym with Knuckles. Knuckles was holding up a heavy bag, and Sonic was landing strikes against it, mostly throwing punches, but also throwing in some kicks as well. After a particularly hard strike, the blue hedgehog panted a bit.

"Why are we doing this?" he asked.

Knuckles shrugged. "We need to be on top of our game, dude."

"That's only just in case, though," Sonic reminded Knuckles. "This mission could go off without a hitch."

"And the shit could hit the fan," Knuckles replied. "I think that it's kind of inevitable by this point that we should help."

Sonic nods. "Maybe you're right," he said, drinking from his water bottle. "Still..."

"Still what?"

Sonic took a breath. "All right, look, if things do get fucked tonight, then we can't be too risky. I think that we might have to try being nonlethal for a change."

"But these fists were made for being lethal," Knuckles replied.

"I know. They belie your cuddly demeanour," Sonic deadpanned. "But we have to be careful. Any single one of those guys being killed could be bad."

Knuckles nodded. "I'll keep something lethal in my car just in case, if that's okay?"

Sonic nodded back. "Yeah. But only if you absolutely have to use it. Otherwise, stick to something less... shooty and bullety, I guess."

"We've got the grenades," Knuckles shrugged. "They could help."

"Not to mention the option for tranquillisers," Sonic added.

Knuckles nodded, checking his phone. "It's about time we got this underway."

Sonic shrugged. "May as well get our uniforms on then."

As he said that, Tails and Shadow came through the door, with the former of the two the first to speak. "It's about time that we-"

"We know," Sonic said. "That's why we're changing into our uniforms."

Tails sighed and chuckled. "Can't blame me. Shadow here was on the fun of his life on that MMA game."

"30 fight unbeaten streak," Shadow explained. "All online battles. I'm almost at the gold ranking now."

"It's only taken you... what, almost a month to reach that?" Sonic asked.

The black and red hedgehog nodded as he and Tails started changing into their uniforms. "Carried on from the academy. Luckily for us that they have a shit-ton of gaming consoles for free time."

"Dude, that streak started on your own console," Tails said. "I was there, remember?"

Shadow chuckled. "I do. Still, it's carried on well, I think."

"Shadow's a video-gaming god, and we just didn't know it," Knuckles smiled.

"Further proof if proof be needed that it's always the silent types that you need to watch out for," Sonic chuckled.

"So, what are the mission options if things go bad?" Tails asked, somewhat getting them back on track.

"Nonlethal," Sonic replied. "Well, that's if the tip was right, at least."

"I get you," Tails nodded. "If we're able to spy on them and pick up on what's going down, then there won't be a problem. But if we get caught..."

"Then me and Knuckles will step in and help," Sonic said, catching on to Tails' train of thought. "We'll go at them from behind if need be. It'll be hard to find a road that'll let us sneak up on them, but we'll find a way."

"And taking a boat would make too much noise," Shadow noted as they all finished getting dressed. "It'd be too direct. Too obvious."

"Well, if we get found out, then we're not going to kill," Sonic replied. "Hurt them if we need to, but no killing. We don't know how many there'll be, or what kind of bad guy could be holding what kind of information."

"We've got it," Tails said. "Man, I'm lucky that we can just casually exploit the loophole of what kind of force to use despite being on probation. I mean, we have killed as freelancers."

Sonic chuckled. "True. But that's one of the few rules that we get to share with the cops. And I'm really thankful for it." He then turned to face everyone else. "You boys ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Knuckles answered.

The blue hedgehog smirked and shook his head as he led his team out of the gym and through the house until they'd reached the outside, where they saw their surveillance van waiting for them. Next to said van was a normal G.H.P.D. car.

"Antoine! Bunnie!" Sonic called out. "We're here!"

Bunnie, who drove the G.H.P.D. van, exited it and walked over. She was dressed in lightly armoured uniform as she waved at the four freelancers. Antoine, exiting the car, did the same, also waving as Bunnie spoke first.

"Y'all need to work on how to be sneaky for our mission," the robot bunny said with a slight chuckle.

"First of all, me and Knuckles are the muscle anyway," Sonic shrugged, unable to hide his grin. "Secondly, this is coming from the two people who brought a giant van onto our headquarters."

"This giant van is going to be sneakily hauling your asses into Star Light so that we can get this op underway," Antoine reminded as he and Bunnie opened the double doors that led to the back of the van.

"We know," Sonic smiled, turning to Tails and Shadow. "You two ready?"

Shadow nodded. "Yep."

Tails also nodded. "Come on, edgy."

The black and red hedgehog shook his head, climbing into the back of the van. Soon, the two-tailed fox joined him, and both of the freelancers in the van gave thumbs ups to Sonic and Knuckles, who did the same back.

"We'll look after those two," Bunnie smiled. "Don't you worry."

"When those two are put together, I usually always worry," Sonic joked. "Thanks for all of this."

"It's not a problem, really," Antoine smiled. "Just make sure that things go right, okay?"

"Hey, you guys are the ones doing the spying," Knuckles smirked. "We don't have to worry."

"Oh, do you have that stakeout mix for me?" Tails asked.

"Oh, sure," Knuckles replied. He pulled out his phone, flicked through a few files, and hit send. "There we go. All rearranged for the perfect spying operation."

"What'd you do that for?" asked Bunnie, more curious than angry.

"We like music while we drive," Sonic shrugged.

"What kinds of music are we expecting to hear?" asked Antoine.

"Do you want main genres, sub-genres, bands, styles... what are you looking for here?" Knuckles asked.

"You know, never mind," Antoine smiled as he shook his head. "That'd take too long."

Sonic chuckled, extending a hand to Antoine. "Be careful out there, okay?"

"You too," Antoine replied, shaking.

Bunnie smiled at Knuckles, and the red echidna shrugged and opened his arms to give her a hug. "You'd best make sure that those two don't get into trouble."

"Eh," Bunnie shrugged, "I watch over Antoine all the time."

"Sadly, I can't deny that," the coyote chuckled as the embrace broke. "You two take care as well."

"We'll do our best," Knuckles said.

Bunnie and Antoine nodded back, closing the back doors of the van. Tails and Shadow gave parting salutes just before the doors were shut, and Sonic and Knuckles did the same. When Antoine and Bunnie were in the front of the van, they started it up, and Sonic and Knuckles both tapped on the back of it, sending it off into the night.

Sonic then looked at Knuckles, and the two nodded to each other. They went over to the police car that Bunnie and Antoine had brought with them, with Knuckles starting it up and Sonic in the main passenger's seat. The engine soon kicked in, and they pulled out of their parking lot, driving quickly. They reached the main road, and were soon caught up well enough behind the van, keeping a safe distance.

The drive itself was silent, with the only noise being Sonic texting Amy to let her know where he'd be, and him getting a response text back, which made him smile. Knuckles smiled to himself as he kept going down the road, but felt his own phone going off. He reached down and answered, putting it on speaker phone.

"Hey, babe!" he said.

"Hey back, babe!" Shade replied. "Just making sure that you're there."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Knuckles asked.

"Because I sent you a text earlier. Must not have come through," Shade said.

Knuckles clicked away from the call to see a text, and cocked an eyebrow as he read through it. "You got held back, huh?"

"Yeah," Shade said with a nod. "Sorry that I won't be back until late."

"We're in the same boat," Sonic said. "We've got a mission on our hands."

"A mission?" the orange echidna asked. "You're allowed to run your own stuff again?"

"It's not our own mission," Sonic clarified. "It's a minor op that we put some good friends at Green Hill up to."

"We got a tip from one of the ass-holes that we got last night," Knuckles added. "Said that something was going down at the Star Light docks."

"Isn't mission info confidential?" Shade asked.

"Only when it's not somebody important," Knuckles shrugged. "You're my fiancee. You have a right to know."

"The fiancee who you're not engaged to and haven't shared a bed with for a few days?" Shade teased.

"The very same," Knuckles smiled. "I'm sorry that I haven't been home much lately."

"It's okay," Shade nodded. "We're just waiting for this freelancer ban to be removed, and then you'll be all mine again."

"Trust me, I don't plan on leaving your arms any time soon when that happens," Knuckles smiled. "I'll call you when we're all done, okay? We're almost at the highway."

"See you later," Shade said. "I love you. So much."

Knuckles couldn't hide his heartfelt smile. "I love you too."

The two hung up and Sonic smiled. "Aw..."

"Don't start it, blue boy," Knuckles smirked.

Sonic shrugged and kicked back for the rest of the drive. Soon, they'd reached the highway, with the G.H.P.D. van more in their sights because of other cars not being in the way. They followed the van as it went down the right road to reach Star Light, being stopped by one of the cops there.

"Are you the guys running the stakeout operation?" the cop asked.

"Yep," said Antoine. "Got two freelancers in the back of the van, and two more in that fancy car back there."

The cop looked down to see the car, and Knuckles looked back, smiling as he recognised the cop. "It's Cameron," Knuckles said, turning to Sonic.

"That cat guy that almost stopped us when we chased Nack up here?" Sonic asked.

"That's the one," Knuckles shrugged. "Guess that he got promoted something fierce when we got demoted to freelancers."

"Would you really call it a demotion given how much ass we've been kicking?" the blue hedgehog mentioned as he watched Antoine show the pass.

"No, I would not," the red echidna replied. "I'm just hoping that he didn't get some sort of smug satisfaction from it."

"Who knows?" Sonic shrugged

They stopped talking and watched as Cameron moved to the back of the van, seeing Tails and Shadow inside. The two smiled, and the cat cop shook his head, turning around to see Knuckles and Sonic. He began slowly walking towards the car, going to the driver's side.

"I never thought that I'd see you guys up here again," Cameron said.

"We were actually here the other day, but you were crammed with work," Knuckles said.

"Oh, that's right!" Cameron said. "You helped out that rookie to take out those back alley thugs."

"That was us," Sonic confirmed with a nod.

Cameron sighed. "Listen, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about the shitty deal that you guys got. If I could have stopped it, I would have."

"It wasn't up to you," Sonic said. "There was nothing that you could have done. Hell, there was nothing that Dingo or Avery could have done. The call was made the moment when we stepped into that courtroom."

"I know it was," the cat nodded. "Anyway, I'll tell Spencer and Walsh that you said hi."

"Thanks," Sonic smiled.

"Where are those two, anyway?" Knuckles asked.

"Swamped with paperwork," Cameron replied. "We drew straws, and I got the biggest end of it, so I got the fun job."

"I'll bet that they don't resent you for that at all," Sonic joked.

"I'm hoping not," Cameron smirked. "Anyway, go on. Pass through before I get sick of seeing you guys."

"Don't emote too hard," Sonic laughed. "You might pull a muscle."

Cameron chuckled and patted the back of the car as it went through. The car stayed close enough to the van as it took its path through the city, with Bunnie and Antoine leading the charge, checking every now and then on the progress of the other vehicle.

"Are we almost there?" Tails asked from the back of the van.

"The docks are up far into the city," said Antoine. "We might have a short while yet."

"Are you getting anxious?" Bunnie added on.

"Not really..." Tails muttered under his breath.

"He said that he's pretty jittery!" Shadow called, earning a light punch on the arm from Tails. "Sorry, dude."

"So you should be," Tails smiled playfully. "Dick."

"So, are you okay?" Shadow asked, more serious now.

"Yeah," Tails nodded. "I'm just... really bothered by Dingo's strategy."

"You mean his strategy of not having men ready to take out those pricks at the docks?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, that one," the yellow fox answered. "What if we get caught?"

"Then I would imagine that we're fucked," Shadow shrugged.

"You really don't beat around the bush, do you?"

"It's part of the reason why I don't talk much," the black and red hedgehog shrugged again. "But, if you're asking me, I don't think that you've got anything to worry about."

"He's right," said Bunnie from the front of the van. "This is just an intelligence gathering mission. Our job is to find a far away place that isn't too inconspicuous, but at the same time, we can't get caught. If we do, as Shadow said, we're fucked."

"It's so sexy hearing you swear in your accent," Antoine chuckled. He then looked at the GPS in the van. "We're almost there." He turned to the back of the van. "You hear that, guys? If so, then you'd best get set up."

"Are we there yet?" Tails asked.

"We will be soon!" Bunnie replied.

"Then me and Shadow will get set up," Tails called.

Antoine chuckled at the exchanged before grabbing the microphone of the van. "Sonic, Knuckles, we're almost there."

"Got it," Sonic said. "We'll break away from you guys and find somewhere else to hide."

"On my count," Antoine replied. The drive continued for a bit, and Antoine had the docks in his sights. "In 3... 2... 1... split."

Sonic and Knuckles instantly hit the brakes on their car, stopping and watching as the van sped ahead. The two kept watch as said van made a sudden sharp left turn, getting behind some buildings and out of their sight. Sonic and Knuckles nodded to each other, and the latter of the two turned to the right, going past a few buildings before circling around past one where they were out of sight enough.

"We're all set," Sonic said, pulling out the binoculars from the glove compartment. "Thank god that they remembered these."

Knuckles smiled and nodded in reply before motioning for Sonic to hand them over. The blue hedgehog did so, and Knuckles looked through the binoculars to see Antoine and Bunnie's van coming up on a small hill that was well protected by the trees and buildings surrounding it, but still had a clear path of sight on the docks.

"Are you guys all good to go where you are?" Sonic asked into the microphone.

"We're set," Bunnie replied. "Just let us get into the back of the van, and we'll be right with you."

"Don't take too long," Sonic chuckled.

Bunnie and Antoine got out of the front of the van and headed into the back, with the coyote about to speak before seeing the inside of the main surveillance part of the van, letting out a high-pitched whistle.

"What did you guys do here?" he asked.

"Oh, Tails here rearranged it to the communications room that we have out our base," Shadow said. "Said that it was easier for him to navigate around."

"Well, it sure does look a lot better," Bunnie smiled. "We should have you come down to the department to sort out our electrical work."

"As long as you pay me a little bit for it, I'll happily do it," Tails said.

"Would cookies be good?" Antoine asked.

"I'll accept cookies," Tails chuckled. "All right, so... who's doing what?"

"Bunnie and I will check the sound and audio," Antoine said. "You two focus on the cameras. See if you can hack into anything nearby that could get in close."

"Doesn't CCTV shut down at night?" asked Tails.

"Actually, since Dingo let us into the city, he's left one open for us," Antoine replied. "He even gave us the code to hack it, which means that someone on his team gets the pleasure of changing it to something else first thing in the morning."

"So, that's how we'll see them?" Shadow asked.

"Well, that's how the three of us will see him," Bunnie clarified. "We'll need you to do something for us to help."

"Name it."

Bunnie reached into her pocket and handed Shadow a bullet. "This is a tracking bullet. We need you to shoot it so that it's close enough."

"What's he going to use to fire it?" Tails asked.

Antoine chuckled, quickly walking around to the front of the van before returning. He returned with a briefcase and handed it to Shadow. The black and red hedgehog opened it up, and grinned at what was inside.

"No way..." He picked out the parts of the sniper rifle from inside the case. "Did you sneak this past Avery?"

"He actually recommended it," said Antoine. "He knows that it'll help for recons and stakeouts. This is one such scenario."

Shadow smiled and assembled it all together easily. After he did, Bunnie handed him a pair of earphones. Shadow nodded, putting them on before walking to the edge of the back of the van. He jumped up, catching the edge of the roof with one hand before swinging himself around to land on it. He took a few steps forwards before laying down prone, setting up the sniper rifle on its small tripod and attaching a silencer and scope to it as well.

"All right, I'm all set up here," Shadow said. "I would like to ask why I'm up here doing this, though."

"Well, CCTV can only do so much," Antoine answered. "Besides, it's good at catching video, but not for audio. That's where your tracker bullet comes in."

"Do you guys have more of them?" Shadow asked.

"I'm afraid not," Antoine said. "They're relatively new and hard to come by. We only got this one for you, so... well, long story short, you really need to make this shot count."

"No pressure," Shadow shrugged, looking through the scope. He spotted the docks in question, looking more squared around than Green Hill's docks, making it easier for people to get on. "All right... I'm looking at the docks right now..." He trailed off as he saw some humans, dressed in similar black garb to the criminals from the night previous. "I see our bad guys. They're wearing similar stuff to the dudes from last night."

"Masks?" Bunnie asked.

"Surprisingly, no," said Shadow. "But I can only see the backs of their heads, and it's also really dark."

"Have you fired the bullet yet?" asked Tails.

"No," Shadow replied. "I'm waiting for the others to turn up and make a deal."

"Good," Antoine replied. "All right, we've hacked into the CCTV."

"What do you see?" asked Shadow. "Can you ID their faces?"

"Eh, just a lot of ass-holes of a lot of different races," said Antoine. "And yet not one of them is Mobian."

"Which is weird, since they're supposedly buying from a Mobian," said Tails.

Shadow chuckled, but then focused up when he moved the scope. He looked in the distance to see some water rippling, and a speedboat was fast approaching. Shadow then looked back down at the bad guys on the docks already as they put on their masks to cover themselves up.

"You guys saw that too, right?" Shadow asked.

"Yep," Bunnie confirmed with a nod. "Why would the bad guys cover their faces when they're making a deal with other bad guys?"

"Maybe it's Nack's idea of professional courtesy," Tails replied. "Or maybe these guys are smarter than we gave them credit for and they're covering themselves up in case something really bad happens."

Shadow shrugged. "Maybe..." he said as the boat reached the docks. "All right, the boat's up. Is now a good time to shoot?"

"Yeah," said Antoine. "It doesn't need to happen when the deal starts directly. By then, it could be too late anyway."

Shadow nodded. "You guys got a spot for me?"

"There's some barrels on the left side there," Tails observed. "That should be a good place for a shot."

Shadow nodded, taking a deep breath as he found the objects which the two-tailed fox had pointed out. He took a deep breath and focused as he found a spot between the barrels. He steadied the scope, took another look to make sure, and pulled the trigger. The silenced shot whizzed out of the sniper rifle's muzzle and landed flush in between the barrels, with not even a slight ding against the metal.

"I made it," the black and red hedgehog said. "All right, I'm coming back inside the van."

"Good work, Shadow," Tails praised.

Shadow removed the attachments from the sniper rifle and hopped off of the roof of the van onto the ground, quickly getting back inside the van. He joined Tails at the cameras as Antoine and Bunnie rearranged themselves to sorting out the sound and audio.

"Come on..." the French coyote said as he turned it. "Got to get the right frequency here..."

"I can see that those bullets aren't perfect," said Tails. "They're pretty damn cool, though."

"It is one of the testing issues," Bunnie admitted. "Getting any nearby radio frequencies to connect with it can be an issue, especially if there are others with electrical devices that could disrupt it."

"The only ones that could have something like that might be the dudes on the boat," Tails said. He got out of his seat and went over to Antoine. "Do you mind if I take a look at it?"

"Not at all," Antoine smiled. "You're the tech geek, after all."

"I prefer the term of electronic and mechanical intellectual," Tails smirked drily. "Just let me take a crack at it."

"Be quick about it," said Antoine, moving out of the way.

"Please, my full name is a pun on a term used to describe speed," Tails chuckled. "I can be quick."

The two-tailed fox sat at the radio and turned it around to test the frequencies, but got nothing back but static. He kept turning it until he felt a faint signal, and smiled as he got it. He turned the other dial, not focusing on the volume, but trying to confine it.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked.

"I'm trying to keep it to a small area," Tails said. "That way, if I can redirect the signal more directly to the bug that you fired, we'll be able to get every last bit of this..." After a few more turns, he boosted the signal now that the radio was set right, and began picking up sounds and voices. "I've got it! Bunnie, turn this dial a bit to the left for me. I need to listen out..."

Bunnie did so. "This good?"

Tails smiled as the sound came through proper. "That's perfect! We've got them!"

"Then let's listen in," Antoine smiled. "Good work, Tails."

"Eh, that was textbook," Tails shrugged. "I read that on my first day here."

"I wasn't even past the first chapter of that particular textbook on my first day..." Shadow mumbled.

"Shh!" Bunnie said. "Watch the cameras!"

They all stayed silent as Shadow and Tails moved to the cameras whilst Bunnie and Antoine focused on the radio, listening to the first parts of the conversation. Since Tails and Shadow also had headphones, they listened as they watched the footage unfold, seeing the bad guys already on the docks with some briefcases of money.

"This enough?" asked a gruff voice as he opened a briefcase that he was carrying.

"Just barely," replied another voice, this one from the speedboat. The camera footage showed him not needing to cover his face as the darkness surrounding him in the water covered his features enough. "Where'd you get that kinda cash?"

Another voice, much more calm sounding, spoke. "By being upstanding citizens and upholding our values and... ah, I can't finish that with a straight face."

"I wish that you two would take this seriously," the man from the boat said. "Wait... where's Cutler?"

"Locked up in Green Hill. Got caught up trying to rob an armoured truck full of money last night, but he was stopped, as were his men."

"They alive?"

"Yes," said the calm man.

"All right... well, you brought the cash, so here's the stuff."

The man then threw a briefcase from the speedboat over to them. In return, the men on the docks threw the money-filled case over. They opened the case filled with weapons and looked a bit disappointed, closing the case.

"Where the fuck are the rest of our guns?" asked the gruff voice.

"Considering that you didn't pay full price, you don't get the full price value," the deliverer said. "In fact, you're lucky to get that, with the shit that you pulled last night. You're lucky that Nack ain't down here to wring your necks."

"Like that Mobian fuck-stick knows how to handle a gun," said the gruff voice. "Everyone talks about him being this big deal, but I ain't seen a damn thing to prove me wrong. He's a pussy."

"He's a thinker," said the deliverer. "You don't think that he has a plan for every city around? You think that he's got these attacks going just because it's fun for him? There's more to this shit than just that. And the sooner that you two fuck-sticks learn that, the longer that you'll get to live."

"You'd best deliver some good pussy tomorrow for that," said the gruff voice again, lifting one of the guns from the case and pointing it at the deliverer. "How does the phrase go? Don't shoot the messenger?"

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not a messenger," the man with the boat chuckled. "But you still shouldn't shoot me, unless you want your asses on a silver platter." He paused. "Speaking of asses, you don't have to worry about tomorrow. Nack will send you some damn fine sluts."

"Nack..." Sonic grunted, listening in.

"You're catching all this?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah," Sonic nodded on his end. "Well, I'm hearing it, at least. The sound quality on these microphones is pretty damn good."

"What was that about bringing girls over?" Knuckles added. "Could it be that Nack is trying to push human trafficking?"

"It's prostitution trafficking at the very least," Bunnie replied. "Either way, it's not a good thing."

"Yeah, true..." Knuckles said.

Back to the conversation, the two thugs on the docks picked up some assault rifles. "All right, let's give these bad boys a test."

"You got anything around here for target practise?" asked the deliverer.

The man with the gruff voice whistled, and out came a few more bad guys with crudely made firing targets. They were set up in the docks, and the bad guys that helped to set them up also walked over to grab some guns of their own, similar to what the others already had.

"All right, boys," said the gruff man. "Ready... aim... fire!"

They all lifted and fired away at the targets, the sounds of their guns firing drowning out everything else. There were several pinging sounds as the bullets bounced off of the targets, some hitting the head, some hitting the body, and some missing and hitting various parts of the docks themselves.

"Looks like they got some good stuff," Tails said.

"I wonder what grade it is," Antoine spoke. "It's hard to tell from the design, but it looks almost military grade."

"Maybe there's more than just the guns," Tails shrugged.

The gruff man smiled as he and his men stopped firing, turning back to the deliverer. "Sounds good to us!"

The man with the boat smiled. "You've got something extra in the case too. Some grenades and knives, so nothing that you can really test out."

"But I thought that we didn't pay enough to get it all?" asked the calm man.

"True, but my boss was feeling pretty generous."

"Huh," the calm voice replied. "I never thought that I'd hear about Nack showing generosity towards people."

"It's just a little extra to help you along," the delivery man shrugged. "Luckily, you can pay Nack back by helping him out."

"And how do we do that?" the calm man asked.

"The same way that you've been doing so far," the delivery man smiled. "Work over this city, make sure that what we ship out gets here properly, and take it all out from the inside."

"Eh, it's worked well so far," the gruff man said. "All right, I guess that we're done here."

"I guess we are," the deliverer said. He pulled out a handgun and quickly shot the gruff man in the back of the leg, causing blood to spurt out of the wound as he fell down. Before the others could move, the delivery guy shook his head. "Do you idiots have any fucking idea how long the trip was to get here from Westopolis?"

"Wait up," said the calm man. "What's your problem?"

"My problem is that we don't need Nack's name almost yelled out in the dead of night," the delivery man said. "You don't know who could be listening in on us!"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just saying to be careful," the deliverer replied.

"And you had to shoot me in the fucking leg to get your point across?!" the gruff man replied. "I swear, if Na-"

The deliverer fired another shot, but this one didn't hit anybody and was a warning. "What did I just tell you about saying his name?" He then calmed down with a deep breath. "And besides, you fucks already chose not to work with him. The less associated with him that you are, the better."

"We're buying guns, drugs, and pussy from him," said the calm man. "I'd say that we're pretty well associated."

"Well, you'd best hope that this is all that you buy," the deliverer said. "And also, don't be such goddamn cheapskates about it, okay?"

"If it's a money issue, then you don't have to worry," said the calm man. "We'll get you more cash."

"It's not a money issue, you moron," said the man with the boat. "It's an issue of your little gang leader here saying the name of my boss over and over."

"Well, what can we do to make up for it?"

The deliverer grinned. "Help out tomorrow."

"What's happening tomorrow?"

The deliverer looked around. "Come closer, and I'll tell you."

"I'm fine where I am, thanks."

The deliverer sighed. "Look, we may already be in some shit with you bunch of fuck-wits yelling out Nack's name. If I don't tell you this up close, then we may be in even more trouble."

"We have masks to cover our faces," said the calm man. "Things will be all good."

"Not if you get a bullet in your leg."

"You really like shooting people's legs, huh?"

"Eh, your boy will be fine," the deliverer said as the other two bad guys who were too shocked from earlier finally picked the gruff man up. "Just trust me, okay? Whatever I tell you needs to be whispered. After I've done that, I'll leave, and I want you to relay what I tell you to the others. And I want you to get that out to any other men that you have, okay?"

The calm man sighed and shrugged, nodding in acceptance. He walked over to the delivery man, putting his gun away as he went over. He got closed enough and leaned in, being careful not to fall forwards into the water as the deliverer whispered into his ear.

"Turn the volume up," Antoine said. "See if we can pick anything up."

Tails did, but shook his head. "I'm not getting anything. They're too far from the tracking bullet, and their voices are too low for me to hear."

"Me too," Shadow said as he kept watching. The video showed the two men breaking apart, with the boat man speaking first.

"Remember, tell that to your friends, but don't shout it out loud, okay?"

"All right, fine," the calm man said. "You know, you're lucky that we didn't kill you after what you did. We very easily could have done just that."

"True," the deliverer admitted with a nod. "But if you did do that, then you wouldn't have gotten this opportunity." He started his boat and revved it up, turning away from the docks with a wave goodbye.

The calm man waved back, and as he turned to walk to his other men, he turned and saw the barrels, seeing a small hole in one of them. "What the heck?"

"Oh, shit," Shadow said.

"Hey, guys!" said the calm man. "I think I found something!"

"Oh, shit," Tails repeated Tails' statement from earlier.

"We've got to shut the camera off!" Antoine hurriedly said, pressing around the controls to do so.

"What's going on?" Sonic asked.

"There's a good chance that we've probably been spotted," Tails replied. "Guys, we need that backup."

"We're on our way," Knuckles said.

The calm man picked at the hole, using a small torch attached to his garb to help him. He saw a long black shell with a small red dot inside it, and he twisted the end of the shell off to look inside, seeing a small circular group of circuits against a green board.

"We've been made!" he said. "Get this shit inside!"

"That backup had better come quick!" Bunnie said.

"We'll go around the opposite side," Sonic said. "We'll reach the docks and discuss a plan."

"What should we do?" Bunnie asked.

"You and Antoine should stay in the van," Sonic replied. "You're the ones who led this small op. If you get in trouble, it'll cost you, and I don't want you guys risking that."

"What if you get into trouble for sorting this out?" Antoine asked.

"Then we'll deal with it," Sonic said. "Besides, this does sort of fall under our backup rule. So... we should be safe."

"You guys close?" asked Shadow.

"We're almost at the docks," Knuckles said. "What about you guys? You getting ready?"

"As ready as we can get," Shadow replied. "We can't get any closer, otherwise this entire thing is compromised."

"You mean, even more so than it already is?" asked Bunnie.

"Yep," the black and red hedgehog nodded. "Me and Tails will get sorted out and try to reach the docks on foot."

"We'll try to come around and meet up with you," Knuckles said.

"Actually, that's a negative," Sonic said. "We may have to stay split up for this one. We have a better chance of catching these ass-holes off guard that way."

"We'll get on our way," Shadow replied. "See you at the bottom."

"Yeah," Sonic said. "We'd best cut the radios. Bunnie and Antoine, you two stay on. See if you can hack that camera again, and keep watch of what's happening."

"Will do," Antoine replied, turning to Shadow and Tails. "You got all you need?"

"Yep," Shadow said. "Good thing that we all brought our pistols just in case."

"You know, I don't think that we've ever used much more than these things. With the exception of your sniper rifle, of course," Tails shrugged. "I guess that we rely on them too much, maybe?"

Shadow chuckled and nodded. "I even have some grenades. We've used these before too."

"Oh, what a shock," Tails smirked. "Let's go."

Shadow nodded, and the two headed out of the van, shutting the doors behind them quietly. They carefully stepped down the hill that the van was on, sliding down the stony wall carefully. Tails used his tails to keep balance so that he didn't fall too far, and soon, he and Shadow reached the bottom, landing just to the side of the docks.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles had finished their drive, but stopped a few buildings away from the Star Light docks. They cut the engine and weaved their way through the buildings, soon reaching the opposite corner of the docks to where Shadow and Tails were already.

"All right, camera's back up and running," said Antoine.

"Got it," Sonic whispered. "What do we got?"

"Including the ones we saw earlier, and the one that got shot in the leg, we have about... six," Antoine said. "Or five, with bleeding leg guy."

"The hero that this city never wanted," Sonic said mirthfully. "All right, what's their status?"

"Two on the right side of the docks nearby where you two are, two in the middle, and one on the left where Shadow and Tails are."

"And they're looking to use that new weaponry that they just got," Bunnie added. "Be careful around these guys."

"We will be," Sonic replied.

Shadow and Tails, still on the other side, moved quickly to the docks, their shoes carefully touching the wood of the pier. Tails and Shadow watched the man in front of them as he looked back and forth. Tails turned to Shadow and nodded. The black and red hedgehog took off and used the cover provided slide behind the bad guy before putting a hand around his mouth, striking the small of his back with a knife-hand strike. He then held one of his arms around the thug's neck, connecting it to his other arm's bicep, slowly choking him out. When he did, he dragged the body back to his cover, picking up his gun and kicking it into the water.

"What the fuck was that?" asked one of the two men in the centre.

"I don't know. Just check it out," replied the other.

The first man nodded, going over to investigate. He looked over the cover that Shadow was using to see the body of his fellow thug, but no sign of the black and red hedgehog. Just as the bad guy was about to call out for help, he felt a sharp pain in his neck and fell to the ground with a noticeable thud.

The other man in the middle of the docks heard it and grunted. "We've been made. Everyone, get back inside!"

The others nodded, heading back inside one of the docks' houses. Sonic and Knuckles looked ahead and saw the gruff man from earlier with the bullet wound still in his leg and some blood that was drying, indicating that the injury was patched up.

"Let's close in on them," Sonic said to Knuckles, who nodded.

The two left their cover, still sticking to it as they watched the house on the docks. The men behind it shut the doors to it, blocking their line of sight, which meant that Sonic and Knuckles could now stand up. They headed towards the centre of the docks, shaking their heads.

"I can't believe this shit..." the blue hedgehog said. "Nack's pushing this shit everywhere... this has gone far beyond a coincidence by this point..."

"It's something that we can talk more about when we're done here," Antoine said.

"Can you get eyes inside the dock house?" Knuckles asked.

"Negative," said Bunnie. "Looks like you guys are on your own for this last part."

"Yeah, looks like it," Sonic said. "Thanks for the help, guys."

"No problem," Bunnie smiled. "And, hey, we're still here."

"You don't mind waiting for us, do you?" Tails asked. "We may need it."

"It's no issue," Antoine replied. "Do you guys want radio silence all around?"

"It might be for the best," Sonic said. "If you guys can't see inside the dock houses, then there's no point in us keeping you online."

"It's nice to feel wanted," the coyote joked. "All right, we'll go silent. We'll still be waiting for you to finish."

"We'll let you know," Sonic said. "See you in a few."

"Later," Antoine replied.

They both shut off, and Knuckles spoke first. "So, how do we go about this?"

"Let's try different groups this time," Sonic said. "Tails, you're with me on this one. Shadow, you go with Knuckles."

"What's the plan of attack?" asked Shadow.

"Me and Tails will try the front door," Sonic answered.

"Then I guess that we'll take the back," Knuckles shrugged. "Shouldn't be too bad."

"See if you two can get the drop on them," the blue hedgehog said. "We'll try to pinch them from both sides."

"Everyone got their tranquillisers ready?" Tails asked.

Sonic checked his clip, as did Knuckles and Shadow. They all nodded, and Sonic and Tails split off from the others, with the pair going to the left of the house whilst Shadow and Knuckles went around the right, reaching the back entrance. Sonic turned to Knuckles and raised a hand with three fingers, counting down before pointing at the door. The red echidna gave a nod and pushed the door open slightly. Sonic went past the door, getting to cover opposite his friend before they both stood up, aiming their guns at the bad guys.

"Freeze!" Sonic said.

"Oh, come on," said the gruff man, sitting up a bit. "We're just trying to do a simple sale here, and you guys just can't keep your filthy noses out of it."

"Is that a cop thing or a Mobian thing?" Knuckles asked.

"Doesn't matter," the gruff man replied, pulling out a gun of his own. "It'll be a thing where you fuckers both wind up dead."

"Oh, really?" Sonic said. He saw the rear door open out the corner of his eye, but didn't look over too much as Tails and Shadow entered the fray. "And what makes you say that?" Sonic continued.

"The fact that there's three of us and two of you..."

"More like two and a half with that bullet in your leg," Knuckles smiled.

"Oh, you're going to get it for that, you son of a bitch..." The gruff man stood to raise his gun, but then felt something in his arm. He soon passed out and fell to the side, and the other two bad guys turned to see Tails and Shadow.

"Got more of them!" the calm man said.

"Just drop them and save yourselves the trouble," Tails sighed.

"How about you go fuck- AGH!"

The calm man looked to see his friend fall onto his knees, holding the back of his neck. He removed his hands, showing a tranquilliser. He fell to the side, unconscious, and the calm man gave a sigh and dropped his gun to the floor.

"You're just going to give up?" Sonic asked.

"There's no point," the calm man shrugged, getting to his knees and putting his hands behind his head. "Look, you've got me where you want me. Now, take me away and lock me up. Just don't hurt me."

"You should have thought about that before you started buying from Nack," Knuckles said.

"So, you were spying on us, huh?" The calm man chuckled. "You're pretty smart for a bunch of pigs."

"I think that we're too fluffy to be pigs," Tails shrugged. "Oh, you mean cops!" He chuckled, playfully slapping his head as if he'd forgetting something. "Funny thing, actually."

"What's so funny?"

Shadow leaned down and got next to the bad guy's ear. "We're not cops..." He then moved his head back before pushing it forward, headbutting the last remaining bad guy and causing him to fall unconscious.

"Hey, that's usually my finishing move," Knuckles said with a smirk.

"Well, you are the only one thickheaded enough to get away with it," Sonic chuckled.

"Yeah, I walked into that one," Knuckles shrugged. "So, what do we do about these guys?"

"We give out a late night call to Star Light's finest and tell them to come here."

"This late?" Tails asked. "Won't the station be shut down?"

"Eh, Rotor stays up late back at Green Hill," said Sonic.

"He's supposed to," Tails said. "He's a mortician."

"Doesn't mean that we can't find someone to help," Sonic said. "I mean, it happened on our first day, remember?"

"True," the yellow fox conceded. "And this mess is a lot easier to clean up than that last one."

"Got that right," Sonic nodded. He then switched his radio back on. "Bunnie? Antoine? You still there?"

"Yep!" Bunnie replied happily. "Did y'all get the job done?"

"We did indeed," Sonic smiled. "We need another favour from you guys, though."

"What is it?" asked Antoine.

"We need you guys to call in Star Light to take care of this mess."

"What about what we learned?" Bunnie asked.

"That's for Dingo to decide on," Sonic said with a sigh. "We won't withhold any information from him. It's best to let him know just who's been pushing this stuff out here in the first place."

"Want to call him now?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Let's head back to the van to do that. It might be the best place for it."

The others nodded in agreement, heading past the docks and up the small hill that connected them to the mainland. They went up the staircase and soon made it back to the van, all hopping in the back with Bunnie and Antoine.

"How'd it go?" asked Antoine.

"We got seen, but we don't have to worry about that too much," Tails replied. "They're not ours to take in."

"I mean, you're freelancers," Bunnie giggled. "They wouldn't be yours to take in anyway."

"Good point," Sonic chuckled. "Can you guys get on the horn to Avery?"

"Sure thing," Antoine said. He pulled out his phone, and the others looked at him. "What? I've got to call him somehow," he smiled. After a few seconds of ringing, the phone picked up on the other end.

"Hello?" Avery asked.

"Hey, Commissioner," Antoine replied, putting it on speaker phone. "So... we did our job."

"Did it get messy?"

"Sadly, yes," Sonic said. "But not too bad."

"What happened?" Avery asked.

"We got spotted, but Sonic and the others took them out easily," Bunnie replied.

"Non-lethally, I might add," Tails threw in. "They're all unconscious and waiting at the docks."

"Well, one of them is technically bleeding," Knuckles said. "But that one isn't our fault."

"What happened in that case?" the brown bear asked with a chuckle.

"The dealer shot him in the leg as a warning," Sonic answered.

Avery let out another small laugh. "So, how did they see you?"

"One of them spotted a tracking bullet that I shot," Shadow said. "Lucky bastards..."

Avery sighed. "There's only so much that can go right with these kinds of missions. Don't beat yourself up about it too much, okay?" After a few seconds, he followed up. "So, it happened, huh?"

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Luckily, they're all knocked out now, so they can't take those things to wherever they were going to take them."

"How bad were they?"

"Military grade," Tails said. "All automatic weapons, and that's only the stuff that we got to see. They mentioned grenades and knives, but we didn't see much else."

"They took it inside one of the dock houses with them, and even then we only went in to take out the rest of them," Shadow added. "We didn't stop by to see the rest of the weaponry."

"That's probably a blessing in disguise," Avery said. "Actually, even more so, since some of Star Light's finest are on their way now."

"How so?" Bunnie asked.

"I just relayed what you told me to Dingo, and his men are closing in," Avery chuckled.

"Good call," Sonic smiled. He then looked out the back of the van to see a pair of S.L.P.D. cars pulling up. "Actually, they're here right now."

"They must have gotten started the moment that I told them that you were all done," the commissioner smiled.

"We'll get them set up then head back home," Antoine said. "See you in a few."

"Likewise," Avery said. "Oh, and well done. You did a good job tonight. All of you did."

"Thank you very much," Sonic replied. "Later."

Avery chuckled and then hanged up, Antoine doing the same as he shrugged. They all then left the van, talking things over with the Star Light cops and guiding them to the docks. With all of their efforts combined, they were able to get the unconscious bodies up the hill and into the Star Light cars. They then went back down for any weapons as well, coming across the new case of guns. Sonic joined them, and looked to get inside the case for himself.

"What are you doing?" asked the cop accompanying him.

"Just taking a look," Sonic shrugged as he knelt down. "We did take these guys down, after all." He opened the case up, whistling. "Damn... that is some military stuff right there." He subtly pulled his phone from his pocket and took a quick photo of the guns.

"You done looking?" the cop asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic replied, quickly putting his phone away and closing the case. "Good thing that we came here when we did."

"I guess so," the cop shrugged. "You did a good job in helping out this city."

"It ain't the first time, and it ain't the first city," Sonic chuckled. "Something tells me that it won't be the last."

The cop smiled, taking the case up with him. Sonic followed him back up, heading back into the van, where the others were waiting. Bunnie and Antoine were waiting in the front, and Sonic shut the back doors behind him, sitting with Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow in the back.

"Straight home?" Bunnie asked.

"Straight home," Sonic replied.

"We'll drop you guys off first before heading back to the base," Antoine said.

"Sounds good," Sonic nodded.

As the drive started, the blue hedgehog pulled out his phone, showing the picture that he took to the other three. The others' expressions were rather surprised and grim, but they nodded in silent agreement not to say a word about it for the time being.

After a 45 minute long drive, they were back home, with Bunnie and Antoine pulling into the alleyway. "We're here!" said the Southern bunny.

"Ah, base sweet base," Knuckles smiled.

The van soon stopped, and Bunnie and Antoine left the van to open the double doors for the others, letting them hop out. When all four had left, the doors were closed behind them, and they turned and smile at Bunnie and Antoine.

"Thanks for the help tonight," Sonic said.

"Hey, you guys were the backup," Antoine chuckled. "We should be thanking you, if anything."

"Still, it means a lot," he nodded.

"Thank you," Bunnie smiled. "So... group hug to celebrate before we go back to the department?"

"Eh, I don't see why not," Sonic chuckled.

The others also agreed, joining in a group hug together and sharing a laugh about it. After they were done, the freelancers waved and said their goodbyes to Bunnie and Antoine, who did the same back as they got back into the van.

As soon as the freelancers entered their own place, Tails switched the lights on, and they headed to the gym's armoury to get changed. When they were all done, they immediately headed upstairs, but didn't enter their rooms yet.

"You know," Shadow said, "we're going to be talking a lot more about that picture tomorrow."

"I know," Sonic nodded.

"Do you think that we can get away with this even though Avery told us to stop?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic shrugged. "I honestly don't know. He's not stupid, so he'll catch on."

"Well, at least we can now confirm that Nack is connected somehow," Tails said.

"Yeah..." Sonic said. "I just wonder how much, you know?"

"Well, we'll find out," Tails smiled.

"What happened to us talking more about it tomorrow?" Sonic joked.

"Good point," Tails said. "All right, let's head to bed. Night."

The others repeated variations of the last word of the two-tailed fox's sentence, all getting changed into nightwear and getting curled up in bed. As they slept, they thought heavily about the next day with the prison transfer, and just hoped that everything would be okay.

* * *

 **I honestly didn't expect this chapter to be this long, or to take this long to write, but there it is! Anyway, yeah. We're reaching the final stretch now, and I'm going to have fun writing it out, even though I don't know how long that'll take. If I don't see you before then, then I wish y'all a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. And I'll see you soon with new stuff... I hope. Take care, and stay tuned.**


	33. Trojan Horse

Nack woke up sleepily, looking to his left as he felt a presence cuddled up to him. He smiled to see the nude Lisa, leaning over to kiss her cheek and lips softly. Soon, she reciprocated and kissed back, moaning softly before her eyes opened. She smiled, and the kiss broke.

"Hi..." she said.

"Hi yourself," Nack smiled back.

"Thank you for last night," Lisa smiled. "Despite you having a free ride, you weren't as bad as most men seem to be."

"Just because you're a whore doesn't mean that I'm going to treat you too much like one," Nack said.

"And yet you're still going to call me a whore?" Lisa giggled.

"Just as your job title," Nack smiled back. "What would you call me?"

"Well, you're certainly not a good man," Lisa began. "Hmm... criminal boss?"

Nack chuckled. "You can call me that after today." He looked to the clock next to them. "I really should get up and get going."

"Big things happening today, huh?" Lisa asked. "Is... is it okay if I come along?"

"No," Nack said simply. "It's a pretty dangerous thing. And plus, I'm staying behind anyway."

"Then why not stay behind in bed with me?"

Nack chuckled. "I've got to get everyone set up. Also, the fake ID cards should be on their way."

"I'll still take care of you if you want?"

Nack smiled and turned to kiss Lisa, and she mounted him and ground her crotch against his. He almost did the same, but grabbed her hips and pulled her down to kiss her again, their lips moulding and the heat between them rising before the purple weasel broke away.

"I would like that, but I get the feeling that you won't be able to," he said.

Lisa sighed and nodded, rolling off of him. She put her underwear on quickly, turning to him as he sat up. "Thanks again for last night," she smiled.

Nack nodded. "It's just nice to see you smile at all." He breathed out a sigh. "How's your stepdad doing?"

"He's still alive," Lisa smiled. "Not much has changed since you last asked me that question."

The purple weasel shrugged and got out of bed himself, putting his own clothes on. "I figure that there's no harm in asking."

"There really isn't," Lisa giggled. "I appreciate it."

As she said that, the door was knocked. "Boss? You in there?"

"I'll be out in a minute," Nack said. "What's going on?"

"The others are here already," said the henchman. "They're in the kitchen, waiting on you."

"All right, I'm almost done in here," Nack replied.

"Also, Lara wanted to know if you wanted breakfast," the other henchman asked.

Nack playfully shook his head at Lisa as they were both now fully clothed. He walked over to the door and opened it, letting the blue cat through it first. She smiled in thanks, somewhat surprising the two henchmen outside before deciding to wait with them. Nack smiled and walked out to join them.

They walked to the kitchen, seeing Lara, Manuel, and Beau all waiting. The tigress was wearing a yellow button-up blouse over a black tank top, along with blue jean shorts and black heels; the bull wore a red v-neck t-shirt with black baggy jeans and his brown combat boots; and the snake wore rather dirty looking clothing, consisting of a denim jacket over a light brown hoodie, along with dark blue jeans and black sneakers.

"Lara, you look lovely," Nack smiled.

"Thank you," Lara replied, giving a respectful head nod.

"Manuel, you look combat ready," Nack grinned.

"Eh, the red will make it look like I don't bleed so badly," Manuel playfully shrugged.

"And Beau," Nack paused. "You look the same as when I first met you."

"I'm the only one who's actually appropriately dressed for their part, and I'm the one who you go after first?" Beau playfully gasped.

"Eh, you know that I'm kidding," the purple weasel said, taking a seat. "So... we all know of the plan, yes?"

"We do," Manuel nodded. "Just waiting on those ID cards, yeah?"

"I do wonder why they didn't come sooner," Nack admitted.

"Well, it takes a long time to forge something like that as it is," Beau surmised. "Add in the fact that it's a fake ID from Westopolis, and that's a lot of fingerprints to scrub off."

"Still, the fact that your own cop friend was able to get a hold of anything like that is pretty impressive," said Lara.

Nack shrugged. "Well, I like to impress. In fact, I also like being impressed. I hope that you guys can do that for me today."

"Yeah, no pressure," Manuel jabbed.

"I know that it's not easy," Nack sighed. "But you've all come this far, and for that, I'm thankful. In fact, I can't thank you enough for how you've stuck with me for so long through all of this."

"You'd better be thankful," Beau smirked. "If it weren't for us, who knows where you'd still be?"

Nack couldn't hide his own grin at that. "You do bring up a good point," he said, shaking his head. "But we're all a part of this thing, okay?"

"Even thought you won't be there?" Manuel asked.

"Yeah," Nack nodded.

"We get it," Lara said. "We're all excited. But first, let's get some breakfast before we go back over things."

"Sounds good to-" Nack started, but was cut off when his phone rang. "Hello? Oh, really? How'd you know where to... ah, right. Yeah, I'll come and pick it up. Thanks."

"Who was that?" Manuel asked.

"Martin," Nack said. "He dropped off the fake IDs at Lara's front desk."

"Looks like he pulled through after all," Beau shrugged.

"Still have doubts about him?" Manuel asked.

"Well, he's still a fucking cop, so... obviously."

"He's a cop who's sort of on Nack's payroll," said Manuel.

"That doesn't make him anything like us," Beau said. "Just because he gets paid like we do doesn't make him one of us."

"And you don't think that that's a good thing?" Nack asked. "Having someone like him around is beneficial. And plus, since he's a dirty cop, we don't have to worry about him betraying us. We all know that we'd stab each other in the back anyway, so if we expect it from a cop, then we really can't act surprised if it happens."

"When it happens..." the Southern snake mumbled.

Nack shook his head. "You may doubt him, but he is an integral part of this entire operation. If you're not happy with that, then I can't force you to be. If you want to leave, then just know that I'm giving you this chance to back out."

Beau shook his head. "No, I'll stay for the plan."

"Nobody said that you had to like it," said Lara.

Beau nodded. "I know. Then again, maybe part of that is because I'm being stuffed into the back of a car and being driven a long distance away."

"I do wonder why Martin isn't here, though," said Manuel.

"It's like he said, he can forge a police uniform," said Lara. "Chances are that he's getting things sorted."

Nack nodded. "It does stand a chance." His phone then went off, and he got a text, smiling. "It's Martin. He's waiting outside with a couple of cars and some extra cops from the Westopolis Police Department."

"Did they get my extra guns?" Manuel asked. "I managed to push a little bit more to them last night, but I dunno if it made it."

Nack shrugged and relayed the bull's message via text, getting one back in a few seconds. "He says yes, but they're not taking all of it since not a lot of cops are going."

"Hope that they got enough," Manuel said.

"Me too," Nack nodded. "You guys ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," said Lara, hooking her arm around Manuel. "Are you good to go, my sweet?"

"Of course, my lady," the bull nodded.

The two walked out arm in arm, getting into the only car there that didn't belong to the cops. Said car was painted a deep blue, and it resembled a pickup truck, only without a trailer on the back, having a proper trunk instead. Beau and Nack were close behind the bull and the tigress, with the latter of the two having the fake IDs in his hand.

Beau smiled as he saw the vehicle. "Is that one of the ones that you got in the abandoned prison garage?"

"Yep," Nack nodded. "My two men are damn good mechanics. They fixed this baby right up."

"Also, there's a costume change for you in the back," Martin smiled, walking over, wearing a Green Hill uniform already.

"Well, I don't like you, but I can't say that I don't appreciate the gesture of courtesy," Beau said, extending his hand forward.

Martin shrugged and shook it. "Eh, anything to help Nack's noble cause."

"The one that he's not helping with at all?"

"The one that I can't help with at all," Nack corrected. "Just shut up and get in the car."

"Yes, boss," Beau said, rolling his eyes. He left around to the back of the car.

Nack turned back to Martin. "You get everything else ready?"

Martin nodded. "Yep. I helped Manuel's men get set up. They've got vehicles heading to Green Hill already, waiting on their command."

"That's a good sign," Nack nodded. "You know, it is a shame that I won't get to see my plan come to fruition with my own two eyes."

"I'll make sure to record the whole thing," the dirty cop chuckled. "And besides, you're still getting the biggest part brought over to you."

"That's if those four bite the bait," Nack said, extending his hand to Martin. "Good luck."

"You too," Martin replied, shaking hands with the purple weasel.

The two broke the shake, and Martin looked down to see that the fake IDs had been given to him. He then gave another nod to Nack before heading into one of the cop cars. After they were all settled in, they waved goodbye to Nack, who waved back, a smile on his face. Said smile widened when Lara lifted her top and flashed her breasts at him, and he laughed a bit. Soon, all vehicles were out of sight, and Nack let out a happy breath before walking over to his car.

"Let's go home, boys," Nack said.

The two henchmen didn't bother to argue, and they followed the purple weasel to the car. They all hopped in, not wasting time and heading straight for the abandoned prison where they would wait patiently for whatever happened next.

 **Meanwhile, in Green Hill, at the same time...**

Sonic's alarm woke him up early, and he turned quickly to shut it off. He let out a yawn and got up, checking his phone. He sleepily went through some text messages wishing him good luck in that day's prison transfer, but his eyes opened a bit more as he saw a message from Amy.

"Hey, handsome," it read. "Hope you have a good day today. And, if not, here's some motivation..." He clicked a photo attachment, and couldn't hide his smile as he saw the pink hedgehog wearing red underwear, stockings included. A caption followed soon after. "This is for tonight..." it said.

"Oh, I'm hoping to see you then," Sonic grinned, texting that to Amy. He then added on, "In all honesty, thanks for the vote of confidence. I hope that your day at school goes well too. See you tonight."

The blue hedgehog then got a knock at his door as he hit send, coupled with a voice. "Come on, Sonic. Time to wake up," said Knuckles on the other side.

"I'm up," Sonic replied, walking over to the door to see his red echidna friend in his uniform. "You're already ready, I see."

"Yep," Knuckles nodded. "I showered beforehand too, so it really seals in the flavour."

"At least you'll be smelling like a picnic when we take those ass-holes to the big house," Sonic chuckled, walking past Knuckles. "I'm going to head into the shower."

"Sure thing," Knuckles said. "By the way, I'm making breakfast wraps. It's good on-the-go food, since we don't really have time to sit down and eat stuff."

"Chicken, cheese, and fries?" Sonic asked.

"Yep," Knuckles nodded.

"With garlic mayo?"

"Yep again."

"Sounds good."

Knuckles smiled. "I've even got your coffee all set up."

"And now it sounds better," Sonic laughed. "All right, time for my shower. I'll see you downstairs."

Knuckles nodded, heading downstairs. As he did, Sonic went into the bathroom, seeing his freelancer uniform neatly folded on the toilet, which had its seat down. He smiled to himself and switched the water on.

Five minutes later, he was finished in the shower, drying himself off with a towel from the rack. When he was finished with that, he put the previous night's clothes and the towel into the hamper before going about his uniform.

"It's probably going to feel kinda bulky to wear these all the time..." he said to himself as he started dressing. He was soon finished, leaving through the bathroom door and heading downstairs. "I'm all done."

"Good," said Tails. "We're in the living room."

Sonic went over to said living room, seeing the others watching the news as Delia the peacock popped up. "Today, Green Hill Police Department is transferring its prisoners from its own holding cells to the main penitentiary. A lot of the good men and women on hand at Green Hill will be on hand to help, but the main story is the freelance agents."

"Good old Delia," Sonic chuckled. "Turn it up, please."

Shadow turned up the volume as Delia kept speaking. "The other night's four freelance agents that helped to stop the armoured back truck robbery are helping along with the proceedings of the transfer. Since they still operate mostly within Green Hill, we can count on our own city being safe. This is Delia the peacock with the morning news."

"That's some damn good morning news right there," Knuckles said, standing from his seat and turning the TV off. "We all ready to go?"

"Yep," Sonic nodded. "Whose car do we take?"

"Let's take both," Tails shrugged. "May as well."

"Good plan," Sonic said. "Who rides with who, though?"

"I'll stick with Knuckles," Shadow said.

"Then it looks like I'm stuck with fluffy here," Sonic smiled.

"Oh, come off it. You know that you're going to enjoy my company."

They all shared laughter at that, and opened the entrance doors, taking care to lock them as they went to their separate cars. Sonic got into the driver's seat of his, with Tails sitting shotgun. The same happened with the other two members of the group, with Knuckles driving and Shadow riding in the front passenger's seat.

"Typical," Sonic playfully sighed. "Even in my own car, I don't get the shotgun seat."

Tails chuckled at that as the car pulled out of the lot. Knuckles waited patiently for Sonic to lead the way, and when Sonic's car was far enough ahead, Knuckles pulled up close behind in his own vehicle, with Shadow speaking into the car's radio.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked.

"The immediate plan is to go over to Green Hill and wait," Sonic replied. "If not that, then we'll just join the convoy at the back of the line."

"Probably the best place for us," Tails said. "We're out of the way of everyone else, and we can also watch over the prisoners in the last transfer vehicle to see if any of them try anything."

"I'm pretty sure that we won't be able to see inside said vehicle of the doors are closed," Knuckles replied.

"Actually, the vehicles that they're using are sort of like pickup trucks, in way," Tails said. "They have a roof over them, and cops nearby can see the prisoners inside it. The worst that they can usually do is jump out."

"And if they do that, we'll just have to run them over," Sonic said.

"I don't think that killing a prisoner that we're taking to a bigger prison is a great idea..." Shadow said.

"Then we'll just hit them really hard with our cars and hope that they don't die," Sonic replied.

"That's a... better answer?" Tails questioned. "I guess?"

"We could just stun them with our pistols," Knuckles suggested. "Then again, the other cops in the convoy could do the same thing."

"True," Tails agreed. "It's likely that they'll be heavily armed, despite the fact that the criminals have nothing except for the clothes that they wore beforehand."

"Well, whatever the case, I hope that they like teal blue and green," Sonic chuckled.

The others shared in the blue hedgehog's laughter before continuing the drive. Soon, they'd arrived at Green Hill itself, just in time to see another police vehicle coming in. Sonic and Knuckles pulled their cars up to park them, killing their respective engines and leaving their vehicles as the G.H.P.D. car with them found their own parking space, with Vector, Charmy, and Espio all leaving, clad in their G.H.P.D. uniforms.

"You guys are coming too?" Sonic asked.

"Why, I'm having a great morning, thanks for asking," Vector replied, smirking. "But, to answer your question, no. We stayed up all night working on something for you."

"Is that something the boards?" asked Knuckles.

"Nothing gets past you," Vector chuckled. He walked to the back of their vehicle and pulled out four boards, all folded up and each one coloured slightly differently; one red, one blue, one black, and one yellow. "I'll let you take a wild swing to guess whose is whose."

Shadow took his, seeing the faint red lines over it. "This is pretty cool."

Knuckles looked his over as well, even seeing some hints of green and yellow on his board. "That's pretty sweet."

Sonic saw his board and chuckled, seeing a red and white stripe along one side of it. "Nice work."

Tails was the last to take his, looking over to see a mixture of yellow and some light blue tinges. "Wow... you guys outdid yourselves with these designs."

"Well, you can thank Espio for those," said Charmy.

"Yeah, I may not be the most mechanically minded," Espio added, "but damn, do I know good design."

"That you do," Tails said, folding his board up. "Let's get inside. I'm sure that Avery wants to see us beforehand."

The others nodded in agreement, all heading into the station. They waved at Cosmo and Mina before heading up to the briefing room, seeing Avery, Simian, Lupe, and Ash, but no Nicole. With the exception of Ash, they all wore an armoured version of her normal uniform, like Vector and the others had. They all sat down, and Avery nodded to them all.

"Good to see you four," Avery said to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow. "Are you ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Sonic replied.

Ash chuckled, turning to Vector. "You guys do what you needed to last night?"

"Yep," Espio replied.

"Good," Avery said. "And you do realise that you're part of the convoy today, right?"

"But... we stayed up... for so damn long..." Vector complained.

"And we appreciate that," Sonic smiled. "We do."

"But..." Tails added. "It's not our call whether or not you can go. If Avery says so, then you go."

"Oh, all right," the green crocodile said. "But you guys had better use those things."

"We will," Knuckles said. "How could we not? They're bad-ass!"

"That they are," Shadow said. "Speaking of bad-asses, where's Nicole?"

"She's gathering our officers up and sorting them into their assigned vehicles," replied Simian. His shoulder mic then sounded off. "Hello?"

"This is Nicole," came the voice on the other side. "Everyone's gathered up and has been assigned their vehicles. We're just waiting on the big boss."

Simian chuckled, smiling at Avery. "Well, you heard the lady."

"All right," the commander said. "Ash, are we set to go?"

"Have been since I got here," the male mongoose replied, pressing a button on his remote. The huge screen behind Avery changed, showing an image of various other G.H.P.D. officers in armoured uniform, holding a variety of weapons. "There we go. You're broadcasting live throughout the whole station."

Avery smiled and cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your commissioner speaking. Today is an important day, as it always is when it comes to huge transfers like this. But part of the reason for that has to go to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow. Even during their brief stint as Green Hill officers, they did all that they could to help. And as freelancers, they've done even more. They've captured more bad guys and brought back more contraband that I can't even imagine it. But this is not just about them, after all. This is about all of us working together to ensure that today's mission is a success. Each and everyone of you is undertaking this mission because you are skilled enough, smart enough, and equipped enough. I know that there's no point in me saying this since you never fail me, but do not let me down. This is Commissioner Avery signing off. Good luck."

"We'll need it..." Sonic muttered under his breath.

"Hell of a speech," Ash smiled as the screen turned back to normal.

"Well, it's not often that I get to give speeches about things like this," Avery said. "But a prison transfer can be a tough deal, especially when it comes to new recruits."

"Do we count as new recruits even though we're technically not officers any more?" Knuckles asked, even raising his hand.

"Well, it still counts," Avery admitted with a shrug. "I mean, you did graduate, after all. And even if you were still all on the force, it hasn't been that long."

"That's a fair point," Knuckles chuckled.

"So, we're all good to go?" Simian asked.

"You're all good to go," Avery nodded. "Unless there are any last questions?"

"I've got a quick one," said Tails.

"Shoot."

"Well, where are you and the other higher-ups coming into play?"

"Ah," Lupe chuckled. "We'll be leading the charge, as it were. But we'll be in a surveillance van to monitor anything just in case something odd pops up."

"What if you wind up fighting?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we've got our guns with us," Avery said. "And plus, Simian's got years of experience in fighting. He can help us out."

"Hey, don't oversell me," the ape smiled. "Lupe's got a good tactical mind too. She can handle herself if and when it's needed."

"And I make the presentations," Ash threw in. "That's... that's my contribution..."

"And you do a hell of a job of it," Sonic chuckled, standing up from his seat. "So... are we all ready to go?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Avery smiled. "The convoy should be setting up. We'd best not waste any more time."

"Then let's get to it," Sonic said.

The others stood up, leading the way past Sonic and the others. As they did this, Sonic pulled out his phone, setting it to the picture of the guns that he'd taken the night before at the docks, hiding his phone when Lupe turned around.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Just texting my girlfriend," Sonic said. "I forgot to tell her this morning."

"Ah, fair enough," Lupe smiled. "She's a lucky girl, whoever she is."

"Her name's Amy."

"Pretty name," Lupe giggled as they left the building proper.

The four freelancers looked over the huge convoy in question, seeing how many vehicles were lined up in a row. There were a fair few prisoner carrier vehicles in the middle, with three G.H.P.D. cars in front and behind, with the surveillance vans rounding things off. Sonic and the others got into the car at the back of the convoy.

"It sucks that we can't really take our own one," said Knuckles.

"You mean your one, right?" Sonic replied as they walked over to the vehicles.

Knuckles sighed. "Yeah..."

"My heart bleeds for you," Tails chuckled.

"Hell, even I'm missing when you'd call shotgun all the time," Shadow added.

"Do you want shotgun in our van at the front?" Tails asked.

"Nah. It's not as special that way," Shadow admitted.

"I call shotgun on ours!" Knuckles said.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me..." Sonic muttered before laughing. He walked over to Tails, high-fiving him and pulling him for a hug. "Stay safe, little bro."

"I will," Tails replied.

Sonic did the same to Shadow. "You too, okay?"

"Hey, I've got Tails to look after me," Shadow smiled. "But, yes. Stay safe, brother."

Knuckles then joined, hugging Tails first, then Shadow. "Are you two going to get along without me to break up your fights?"

"We make no promises," Shadow chuckled.

"Just remember, you're sharing a van with our boss," Sonic whispered. "Shit, he didn't hear me, did he?"

"Former boss," Avery corrected.

"Yep. He heard me."

Avery smiled. "In all honesty, this is a touching moment. But we've got work to do. So let's do that work."

"We're on it," said Sonic. "I'm assuming that Vector and the mechanics are in our van too?"

"You assume correctly," Avery nodded. "You'd best get to your van with your terrible 80's rock band quickly."

"Hey, Vector and The Mechanics were a minor hit back in the day," Vector chuckled jokingly.

The others laughed, and soon finished wishing each other well before both sides took off for their respective vans: Tails and Shadow with Avery, Lupe, and Simian; and Sonic and Knuckles with Espio, Charmy, and Vector.

As the latter group got into their van, the doors already opened for them by the cops around them, the green crocodile spoke. "So, you guys really are brothers, huh?"

"Not blood related, but yes," Knuckles replied. "We've been this way since we met in Green Hill Academy, really."

"You wouldn't believe that on the first day, though," Sonic said as they all took their seats.

"So, what connected you all to each other?" asked Espio.

"Mostly similar music taste," said Knuckles with a grin. "I caught this guy trying to sneak a peek at The Ghost Inside's last album, and when I found out that he liked a band that good, we shared in that."

"And we became friends through more than that," Sonic added. "Not just through music or through humour, but because we all wanted to become cops for the right reason."

"And what reason is that?" Charmy asked.

"Helping people," Sonic said. "Also, weird that an actual cop asked that question."

"Weirder still that said cop asked it to former cops," Charmy corrected. "But still, does the answer stay the same now that you're freelancers?"

"Of course it does," Sonic smiled as the doors closed.

Meanwhile, just outside of Green Hill, a dark blue vehicle drove towards the entrance gate to the city, the said vehicle containing a muscular bull and a feminine tigress. They drove up to the toll booth and flashed their IDs.

"Hmm..." The toll man, who was a spotted leopard, looked over the IDs before nodding and handing them back. "Seems clear enough... but could we check over your vehicle?"

"What for?" asked Manuel.

"Well, there's a big prison transfer going on today," the leopard said. "We need to check anyone coming in or out." He then got out of his booth, walking to check the vehicle's plates with a flashlight. "Hmm... Star Light... just like on the IDs..."

"Are we clear yet?" asked Lara.

"Not fully," said the leopard, shutting off his flashlight. "Could you pop open the trunk for me?"

"Sure," Manuel said, opening the trunk of the car.

The leopard used his torch, looking and seeing an exercise bag. He reached for it and opened it up, finding clothing and some other appliances inside before zipping it back up, checking the side pockets to find similar things.

"Here for a little getaway?" asked the leopard.

"Yep!" Lara said excitedly. "It's our honeymoon, and we're going throughout Mobius to visit the most beautiful places in each city!"

The leopard closes the trunk and quickly checks the backseats of the car before going to the front, leaning his arms against the door and looking over Manuel and Lara, as if to make sure of something. He then chuckled and started speaking.

"Well, this place is named Green Hill for a reason," he smiled. "There's a beautiful view of the city from the green hills that this city is based upon. I can highly recommend checking it out if you get the time."

"Sounds lovely," Manuel smiled. "Where are they?"

"Just short of the northernmost point of the city," the toll man said. "Can't miss them."

"We'll be sure to check it out," Manuel said.

"Sure thing," the leopard said. "You have a good day now!"

"You too!" said Manuel. He continued driving the car, passing the border and entering Green Hill proper as thumping from the back sounded off. "Yes, Beau?"

"Are we there yet?" the snake asked.

"We're in the city, but not anywhere near close enough to the spot."

"What about the other cops and such?"

"They're on their way," Lara replied. "Considering how good these fake IDs are, it wouldn't surprise me if they were already in the city."

"Maybe they took a different entrance here?" Beau suggested.

"Maybe so," Manuel shrugged. "All right, we're in the clear. Let's find a good alleyway for you."

Back at the convoy, Avery looked around as he saw a couple of extra G.H.P.D. vehicles pulling up, smiling. "Ah, there they are."

"There who are?" Shadow asked.

"Perfect grammar," Tails deadpanned. "But, yeah. I am also curious."

"Some extra help," said Avery. "Police from different jurisdictions can help out with convoy operations. Looks like we've got a couple of vans joining us."

Tails looked out of one of the side windows and smiled. "Hey, that's Brookes!"

Shadow looked out and chuckled. "So it is!"

"Isn't that the guy who you saved at Aqua Lake?" asked Simian.

"The very same," replied Tails, waving at the cop.

Brookes waved back, driving next up next to their car as he picked up the radio. "Hey... I remember you two. Don't you have another hedgehog friend? And an echidna too?"

"They're at the back end of the convoy," Shadow clarified, also using the radio. He then heard some more revving noises, looking forward to see a couple more vehicles. "Brought some friends, huh?"

"I hope that it's not too much," said Brookes with a shrug. "You've got an impressive haul of prisoners there."

"Well, we did bring most of them in," said Shadow. "And we're not even real cops."

Brookes laughed. "All right, I'm going to go say high to the other two."

"Take care," Tails said. As Brookes left, he turned to Shadow. "Did that seem... off to you?"

"What, you mean cops from outside of Green Hill's jurisdiction suddenly showing up to help?" Shadow replied. "Yeah. Seemed way off."

Tails got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I don't like this all of a sudden..."

"Is something wrong?" asked Avery.

"We can't be sure," Tails said, going to the front. "Can I get on the horn to the dudes at the back?"

"Knock yourself out," the bear said, handing Tails the microphone.

"Sonic? Knuckles?" the yellow fox began.

"We're here," said Sonic. "What's up on your end, little bro?"

"We just bumped into Brookes," Shadow said.

"That Aqua Lake guy?" Knuckles asked.

"That same one," Tails confirmed. "And he brought some friends to help."

"That's pretty nice of him," the red echidna replied. He then looked out the window, seeing the man in question. "Oh, and there he is now! How the hell have you been, dude?"

"Just fine," Brookes replied from his radio. "Yourselves?"

"Still on a pretty damn good record," Sonic shrugged. "How are things over at Aqua Lake?"

"Pretty good," Brookes replied. "Sorry to cut this short, but I want to speak with Avery to iron out a few details."

"Sure," Sonic said. "Go right ahead."

Brookes then switched the radio setting to speak with Avery. "Is this Commander Avery?"

"This is him, yes," the bear replied. "How can I help you, good sir?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you a question," Brookes said, looking in his rear view mirror and seeing a car coming up behind.

"Shoot."

"Do you know what a Trojan horse is?"

Avery sounded confused. "Why are you asking me this?"

"Just out of curiosity. Since it could be a long drive, we need to find a way to kill the time, you know?"

"I guess so," Avery said. "Well, to answer your question, I do know. The Greeks used a large wooden horse to sneak into Troy and take it over to end a war."

"And what would be the modern day equivalent of that, do you think?"

"I supposed a computer virus of some sort?"

"Not quite..." Brookes then hanged up the radio.

Avery was once again confused, but saw a couple more cars pulling up in front of him. In one of the side mirrors, he saw the same happening to not just the rear van, but to all of the other main vehicles of the convoy. A look of dread fell over his face briefly, and it didn't go unnoticed.

"What is it, sir?" Simian asked.

"It's a trap," Avery said. "We're being pushed in on the sides."

"But they're friendlies, aren't they?" asked Lupe.

"No, they're not," Shadow said. He looked out the window and saw not just the cars starting to squeeze in, but he looked past that and saw men flooding out of the alleyways. "Fuck..."

Tails also looked out of the window, seeing the exact same. "Yeah... fuck..." He went to grab the radio quickly. "Sonic, Knuckles, come in."

"We're here," Sonic said. "We see it."

"What are we going to do?"

"You're going to stop driving," said Brookes, cutting in. "You're going to stop your convoy, and you're going to let us free those prisoners."

"And what if we decline, you son of a bitch?" Knuckles asked. A car then crashed into the side of his van, and he fell on his side.

"That was just a warning," Brookes said. "Stop. Now. Pull over, and we all get out of this one alive."

Knuckles sighed as he got back up. "What are we supposed to do?"

Sonic looked back and forth, seeing the cars and gunmen closing in, but smiling. "I think I have an idea." He walked over to the radio. "All right, we're going to stop."

"No, we're not!" Avery replied.

"Sir, with all due respect, you're not our boss," Sonic said. "I want to make a deal with Brookes, if I may."

"What do you want?" Brookes asked.

"Before I tell you, I'm going to ask that this convoy stops and that you stop as well," Sonic said. "When it does, I'm going to exit my van unarmed..." He took a deep breath, not believing what he was going to say next. "And, as a sign of good faith, I won't be the only one."

"Who else will there be?" Brookes asked.

"My echidna friend here with me," Sonic continued, sneaking his phone from his pocket, "and a fox named Tails, who is in the front van."

"And why the hell would I want just you three guys?" Brookes asked.

"Oh, you're going to get the prisoners too," the blue hedgehog said, typing a text to the fox in question. "But you'll also get us."

"Why would we want you?"

"Just think about it," Tails said from the front van. "You can take all of these prisoners back up to Westopolis with you, or you can take us along too. I mean, three cybernetic freelance cops on your side? That's got to be a bargain, right?"

"I suppose that you have a point," Brookes pondered. "But I have your word, right? You'll do exactly as I say, and no harm will come to you."

"We will," Sonic spoke.

Brookes turned to the men beside him. "Slow it down," he said. Before they could protest, he spoke up again. "And everyone else, lower your weapons!" The vehicles slowed down, and soon, the convoy did as well. Brookes nodded from where he was. "All right. I want all of the freelancers to leave their respective vehicles and walk to the prisoner bus in the middle. If anyone steps out of line, we will open fire. Understood?"

"You got it," Knuckles said. "We're stepping out right... now..."

Brookes and his men waited as they saw the rear doors of both vans open up, with Tails leaving the front one, and Sonic and Knuckles leaving the back one. They were instructed to hold their hands behind their heads as they walked to the prisoner carrier, facing the bad guys' direction.

"We're here!" Sonic called. "What's your next instruction?"

"Would you kindly let those prisoners free?" Brookes asked.

Sonic nodded. "That will mean having to move from my current position. Do I have your word that you and your men won't fire upon me or mine as I do this?"

Brookes nodded slowly. "You have my word. Go ahead."

Sonic put his hands down by his sides and went around to the driver's side of the carrier. The driver opened the door, sighing as he left it open to unlock the prisoners from their cuffs. Once all the criminals were free, they immediately made a beeline for Brookes, all being given guns and pointing them at the freelancers as they were guided into vehicles of their own.

"Whoa, what is this?" Sonic asked. "You gave me your word!"

"I gave you my word that me and my men wouldn't shoot at you," Brookes corrected. "I never said anything about the prisoners."

Sonic chuckled. "Very deceptive of you," Sonic said. "I guess that, on some level, I can appreciate that."

"Oh, really? In what way?"

"Well, there's a funny thing about deception," Sonic began. "You see, when you and a bunch of your friends show up and start to make a bunch of demands and deals, then there's bound to be a slip-up on one side or the other, right?"

"I suppose so," Brookes said.

"And considering how we helped you back in Aqua Lake, that in itself is a hell of a deception."

"You won't get answers from me about that," Brookes said.

"Oh, I don't expect any," Sonic shrugged.

Before Brookes could reply, one of the men behind him had fallen down, blood spurting from either side of his head as he dropped to the floor of the car, dead. Brookes looked panicked, but before he could grab his own gun, his own hand felt the sting of a bullet blasting through it, causing him to hold it as it bled and he stammered, his men bringing their weapons up.

Sonic chuckled and dragged Brookes out of his car, holding his knife to the human's throat. "If any single one of you even thinks about it, then he dies, got it?"

Brookes used his good hand to indicate that he wanted them to lower their weapons. "What... what do you want?"

"Oh, it's simple," Sonic said. "I want you to turn around and leave. Don't ever come back, because if you do, then I'll-"

But Sonic was silenced as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Suddenly, he fell backwards, coughing as he let go of his knife. Brookes, stunned from it all, turned to see Knuckles and Tails smirking at their fallen friend.

"You... you two are selling him out?" Brookes asked.

"Are you kidding," Tails said. "If it weren't for him, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."

"So, why was one of my men just killed?" Brookes asked.

"Makes room for us in the car, doesn't it?" Knuckles answered. "We've got a third man who took over as sniper. As you can see from his shooting there, he's got damn good aim. Fuck, I can't think of a time that I've ever seen him miss."

"And besides," Tails added, "with three men on your team, that'll make up for blue boy not being part of it." He then bent down to Sonic's corpse.

"You going to steal from a dead body?" Brookes asked.

"All he's got is a knife, which we all also have," Knuckles shrugged. "Pointless taking it with us."

"True," Brookes agreed. "And plus... well, we've got tons of weapons. Just leave him be."

Knuckles and Tails nodded, and soon, Shadow appeared as well, appearing suddenly next to them. He walked past them all and looked down at Sonic, kicking his body several times before kicking him across the face, breathing heavily.

"You the sniper?" Brookes asked.

"Yep," Shadow replied.

"Any reason why you killed one of my men and then shot at me too?"

"To get your attention," Shadow said. "I bet that none of your other guys could have made that shot. Not even your own sniper."

"Is my sniper still alive?"

"Yeah, I didn't touch him," said Shadow.

Brookes shook his head. "You sold out your own leader so quickly... I don't know whether to feel proud or disgusted."

"We could say the same about what happened at Aqua Lake," Tails replied. "In fact, if it's at all possible, we'd very much like to meet the man who set that up."

"Well... we got what we came for, so we should head back to Westopolis," Brookes noted. "But I need to make sure of something first."

He then quickly pulled out his pistol and fired several times at Sonic's body. He then aimed up for Sonic's head, but Tails grabbed Brookes' hand and shook his head, causing the Aqua Lake cop to look up at the two-tailed fox.

"I'm pretty sure he's dead, dude," Tails said.

"Really? Because I don't see any blood," said Brookes.

"Well, what do you expect? You're shooting through his body armour," Knuckles said. "With enough shots in a focused place, like you just did, it'll hammer against it hard. You probably killed him by cutting off his air supply."

"Not to mention my sniper bullet cutting through his armour anyway," said Shadow. "Since the armour is black, the blood is harder to see."

Brookes shrugged. "Whatever. I don't have time for this. We need to go."

"What about the rest of the cops?" asked Tails.

"I'll leave that up to you," Brookes answered.

"Hmm... let them live," Shadow said. "We'll leave these guys to their grieving over their blue hero."

"I like the way that you think," Brookes smiled. "All right, let's get out of here!" He called up the radio. "You guys good? Anybody come past that way?"

"Nope, we're all good," Beau said on his side. "Nobody passed by. This route must be super secure, which makes sense since it's a prison transfer."

"All right, fair enough," Brookes nodded. "We'll start leaving soon."

"Why soon?" Tails asked.

Brookes simple snapped his fingers, and a few moments after that, several of his men started firing at the vehicles of the convoy. Machine guns, pistols, and shotguns sounded off all around the former freelancers and bounced off the G.H.P.D. vans, cars, and prison carrier, some bullets ricocheting off as others made huge dents in the vehicles.

After a good twenty seconds of this, Brookes held out his hand. "That's enough!" The firing stopped, and the Aqua Lake officer chuckled, looking at Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow. "I hope this is okay. I mean, you don't need them any more, right?"

"True," Tails said. "And plus, you did make that deal with Sonic, who is now dead. The way that I see it, that means that the deal fell through, so it doesn't mean anything any more."

"Then we're off!" Brookes smiled, taking to his radio. "Everyone not in a vehicle, you either get in one now or you get left behind. Let's get moving, people!"

On his command, the other criminals immediately made their way to any free vehicles that they could find, provided that they were part of the bad guys' crew as taking the police vehicles would raise more questions, not to mention the fact that said vehicles were already damaged.

After everyone was packed in, Brookes chuckled a bit as he started driving off with the other cars. He saw Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow all raising their middle fingers to the city as they left it, making their way to somewhere new.

Meanwhile, back at the road that the convoy was on, Avery walked carefully from behind the van where he was hidden, making sure that the coast was clear before heading over to Sonic's body, kneeling down.

"Sonic!" he called, shaking him. "Come on, please be okay!" He knelt his head down to Sonic's chest, pressing an ear against it but not hearing anything. He hurried to take Sonic's shirt off and was a bit surprised. "Armour? What... what the hell is going on?!" He shook his head and undid the armour before kneeling down again to press his lips to Sonic's, breathing some air into him and pressing several times on his chest.

The blue hedgehog's eyes shot wide open as he took in a deep breath, gasping several times.

* * *

 **So, here it is! Finally! The second to last chapter! I hope that it was worth the wait. The next chapter is probably going to be the longest of the story, as it will be the finale. I hope that you enjoyed this one, even though it took me so long. Sorry about that. Anyway, take care, and stay tuned for the next one. I'll see you all then.**


	34. Fight For Freedom

**So, here we are! The final main chapter of the story of Cyber Riders. I know that it's been a long time coming, and I'm sorry for not working more on it, but I would like to thank everyone who has read it and is all caught up, because this chapter is going to be pretty big. I mean, it's the finale, so it has to be a big one, right? Of course! With that said, thanks once again, and let's just get to it. I'll see you guys at the bottom.**

* * *

Sonic's emerald green eyes shot wide open and he took several breaths. "Man... that hurt like a bitch..."

Avery breathed a sigh of relief, but was still confused. "How... how are you still alive?"

Sonic unbuttoned his shirt slightly, pulling a knife from his holster that had a bullet dent in it. "Shadow shot me right there," Sonic replied, readjusting the holster back to normal. "It was just in case the armour wasn't enough..."

"And did he mean to do that?" asked Simian.

"Yes," Sonic nodded, pulling out his phone and tossing it to Avery, who caught it. "Read it."

Avery cleared his throat, seeing a message thread between Sonic and Shadow. "We need to stop and pull over. I have a plan..."

"What is it?" Simian asked, speaking for Shadow's part.

Avery was a bit bemused by that, but carried on, reading for Sonic. "First, you need to be quiet. Open the side door and let the others out to hide behind it." He looked up at Sonic. "So, that's why he did that."

"Indeed," Sonic nodded. "Carry on."

"What's the next step?" Simian read.

"Well, I'm going to try and negotiate all of us over," Avery read out. "If they accept, then we can get them to leave the others alone."

"But they won't, will they?"

"Nope," Avery read. "That's why I have another part of the plan. It's super risky, though."

"At this point, risky is all that we have. Hurry. We don't have a lot of time left."

Avery breathed as he read the next part out. "They've probably got a sniper somewhere. I want you to teleport up and take over, and kill one of the dudes in Brooke's car. That way, when Brookes is distracted by me, you're going to shoot me in the chest, right over my right pectoral. I'll have my knife under to protect me."

Simian seemed confused as he kept reading. "But won't that kill you?"

"Not if you hit the right spot," Avery replied. "It's all you."

"And then what?"

"Then," Avery said, his eyes widening. "Sonic... this... this is insane..."

"Look, I was strapped for time, and I didn't have much of a choice," the blue hedgehog replied. "Keep reading. I'm going to make sure that the others are safe."

The commander shook his head as he kept going. "And then, you, Knuckles, and Tails are all going to join Brookes. Wherever he takes you, you go. Just make sure to keep the GPS on in your phone, and I'll be able to keep track."

"All of our phones?" Simian read.

"No, just yours. If it happens with all of you, then the bad guys will catch on. We can't risk that."

"And we're leaving our weapons behind?" Simian read.

"You are," Avery read. "But I'll bring them back to you. Don't you worry about that."

"Got it," Simian read, taking note of the smiley face. "For now, we should stop and get out of here before Brookes gets trigger happy. Over and out."

"Over and out," Avery finished.

Sonic had gotten the last of the cops out of the convoy, checking over them. "Some got some shrapnel wounds, but nothing too serious. They're all fine."

Avery nodded, handing the phone back to Sonic. "Hell of a risk with that plan."

"That's kinda my style, it seems," Sonic said, checking over his phone. "All right... tracking the signal... looks good..."

"As much as I admire the utter insanity of all of this," Simian spoke up, "I do have one question to ask."

"Shoot," Sonic said, still waiting on the signal.

"How the hell are you going to get everything back to wherever Brookes is without being caught?"

"Well, simple," Sonic shrugged. "I'm going alone."

"Alone?" Avery asked. "With all of those weapons?"

"Hmm... maybe not..." The blue freelancer couldn't fight his grin. "Say, does it violate the district rule if I request an airdrop from a police force outside of a city?"

"Technically, no," said Avery. "But the airdrop has to be a one and done job. Can't stay for too long. Why?"

"Gather up all of our weapons and take them back to the department. Get a chopper set up, but don't come for me until I tell you to."

"Since when do you boss us around?" Simian asked.

"Since I became a freelancer and wound up doing ninety nine percent of your job for you?" Sonic smirked. "I know that it's a dangerous risk, but since you guys won't be breaking any rules, you won't get into trouble."

"Yes, but you might," Avery noted. "You can't just go to a different city alone. You must have backup requested before you can go there."

"Does the backup have to be from a cop of that city?" Sonic asked.

"It does," Simian said bluntly. "One of the other freelancers can't just call on you and then it'll all be okay."

Sonic shrugged. "Well then, in this case, fuck that particular rule."

"Well, at least let us give you a lift there," said Simian.

"No," Sonic said, turning and walking back to the truck he was in. "For one thing, if you get caught helping, you could get into trouble. For another, you've got people here to help. So, help them."

"Then how are you going to get there?" asked Avery.

"Just give me a second, and I'll be right with you," Sonic replied.

The bear shook his head and waited as he heard Sonic looking around for certain things. After a good thirty seconds, Sonic walked back out, now wearing his freelancer uniform and body armour, having a shotgun slung over his left shoulder, an assault rifle over the right shoulder, a pistol on his left hip, several grenades on his right, and a knife next to the pistol. He was also holding a blue board in his left hand, and a red one in his right hand.

"So, I know that I'm repeating myself, but how will you get there?" Avery asked.

"I'll give you three guesses," Sonic chuckled, walking to the other truck. "And the first two don't count!" He soon came back with Tails and Shadow's boards, handing those and Knuckles' boards to Avery and Simian. "Can you make those part of the airdrop too?"

Avery smiled. "Consider it done."

"Awesome," Sonic smiled. He put his board on the ground and watched as it floated for him, allowing him to step onto it as the straps stuck to his feet, keeping him on the board. "All right, I'll see you guys later."

"You seem confident about that considering that your friends are trapped," Avery pointed out.

"They're trapped because I told them to be," Sonic shrugged. He then heard a sound from a van, and Avery went over to it.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Hi, this is Martin of the Westopolis Police Department. We've got a huge problem!"

"What is it?" Avery smirked, turning to Sonic.

"Some guys with a lot of cars and some guns. Some of the cars are from your department, I believe," Martin replied. "But I don't trust them... I'm scared!"

"We'll send someone out to help," Avery replied. "Can you hold out until then?"

"We'll... we'll be fine," Martin said.

"Good," Avery said. "Over and out." The radio then hung up, and he turned to Sonic. "Did that feel too... convenient to you?"

"Doesn't matter," Sonic shrugged. "I'm going there to save my friends anyway."

"You know that it's a trap, right?" asked Simian.

"Of course I do," Sonic smirked. "But, luckily, I've got a trap of my own waiting in the form of a big red echidna, a fluffy two-tailed fox, and an edgy hedgehog who listens to more metal than the rest of us."

"Then get going," Avery smiled. "You've heard the call. Go and answer it."

Sonic just nodded in reply, giving a parting two-fingered salute as his board sped off. A smile on his face, he enjoyed the breeze in his blue quills as he headed in the direction of Westopolis, using the GPS of his friends' phones to find his way. 'I'm coming for you, guys...' he thought to himself.

 **Back in Westopolis...**

Brookes chuckled as he looked back over the convoy that he led before turning to the other three in his car. "Welcome to Westopolis, boys!"

"I don't see a red rug," Knuckles shrugged. "Not feeling too welcome."

"If you need a long streak of red to feel welcome in Westopolis, then maybe I should have set up some poor fucks to be shot to shit," Brookes said. "That's enough blood to qualify for a rug, I feel."

"Or we could just skin Knuckles," Tails playfully suggested. "He is big enough."

"That's what all the bitches say," the red echidna smiled.

"You guys sure are fitting into this role quite well," Brookes said. "Considering how well you guys did at Aqua Lake, I'm honestly surprised by the sudden heel turn. Was he that bad of a boss?"

"Not really," Shadow said. "But we were short on cash. We should have been getting paid way, way more than we got considering that we did twice the work of the fucking police."

"Twice the work and crappy pay makes us all dull boys," Knuckles smirked.

"Getting as many people as you did out of the shit-show Aqua Lake was still pretty impressive," Brookes carried on. "An island city, known for being peaceful, and you braved through three buildings that were almost burned to bits. And yet, you still saved people."

"And we're getting sick of saving people," said Shadow. "The more that we save, the less that we get thanked. We're better than that."

"And do you think that coming to the shittiest city in all of Mobius is a step up?" Brookes asked with a smile as he kept on driving.

"Considering where we used to be, yeah," Tails replied. "I'd much rather work for some seedy bastard who's honest about the fact that he's a seedy bastard as opposed to some guy who thinks that he's helping us all but couldn't give less of a shit."

"If he did care," Knuckles added, "he would have tried to get us more out of it too. He's a selfish, spoiled, needy prick. I'm glad that the fucker's dead, to be honest."

Brookes smiled at that, looking in the rear view mirror to see Shadow. "Bet it felt good putting that bullet through his chest, huh?"

"Didn't feel like enough, to be honest," Shadow replied coldly.

"What about the stomping on his corpse afterwards?" the Aqua Lake cop asked.

"That did help a little bit," Shadow admitted. "Not enough, but a little bit."

Brookes smiled. "I kinda felt the same at first when I left my Aqua Lake friends behind. I was already working for Nack anyway, but I had to bide my time until I could break free from that city."

"How did you break free, exactly?" asked Knuckles.

"Well, I was out on patrol with some fellow officers, and we were shooting the shit, as you do. One of them asked about me being on the front-lines during the explosions, and I told him the whole truth." Brookes then smiled into a chuckle. "I then killed the other officers, and told the cops that I work for about it right afterwards before I got the fuck out of dodge."

"And they don't have any traces of you?" asked Knuckles.

"Once you get ex-communicated from the police, they burn your old records," Brookes pointed out. "I should be a criminal in their database, but luckily I pulled all of that shit out myself anyway."

"You're smart enough to do that?" Tails asked.

"I set up three timed bombs to go boom," Brookes shrugged. "It's only a little bit more complicated than getting rid of my records."

"Can you do that for others too?"

"I could, but I don't know if it'll work for freelancers," Brookes said. "You guys aren't technically cops, so you walk the line quite carefully. It's usually up to you whether you want to use lethal force or not."

"I think that we can handle lethal," said Knuckles. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"How much longer, anyway?" asked Tails.

"Not too long," Brookes said. "We're deeper into the city now. I guess that I should take you guys to Manuel's place."

"Manuel?" asked Shadow.

"Yeah," said the officer. "He's basically the main arms dealer of Westopolis, not to mention one hell of a fighter too. The dude doesn't like to get violent, but when he does... well, the phrase "raging bull" is an understatement, let's just put it that way."

"So, he's an actual bull?" asked Knuckles.

"Yep. Nice guy once you get to know him."

"I assume that we're going to get to know him quite well if we're going to be working for him," Shadow said. "And considering how many men there were at that convoy, it's also safe to assume that he trains them well and has high profile weaponry."

"Not just that, but lots of it," Tails said. "Manuel's got a small army on his hands. Or hooves, rather."

"And that small army was good enough to take down a police convoy," Brookes smirked. "And, now that we have three freelancers with us, that army will only get even stronger."

The others chuckled in agreement as the drive continued. It was a long ride to their destination, and they were nowhere close for a long time until they saw other cars get in front of them and drive in a specific direction, seeing some other cars break away from them that they hadn't noticed before.

"What's with the other guys?" Tails asked as they fell into their new convoy.

"Oh, those guys are going to take some shipments to some places," Brookes said. "I'd tell you where, but it's too many to list."

"Try us," the yellow fox dared.

"Well, Green Hill and Star Light are the two most obvious ones. There's Aqua Lake, Scrap Metal, Marble Stone... all the big ones."

"Damn," Tails said. "Nack wants armies everywhere."

"Not just armies," said Brookes. "Guns are one thing, but there's also drugs and hookers."

"Ah, yes," Tails joked. "Let's all fear the armies of prostitutes high on drugs as they try to shoot people."

"They build them tough in Westopolis," Brookes chuckled. "All right, we're about there."

"About where?" Knuckles asked, looking past to see the cars in front of him.

The red echidna kept looking, and soon saw several of the cars disappearing past a large door, soon noticing that said door led to a huge warehouse. They were driven inside themselves, and Knuckles looked around, whistling in approval. He saw the firing range, the many racks of guns, the rooms for the bad guys to sleep in, and even a few empty rooms in the back.

"What are those ones for?" Knuckles asked, pointing.

"That, I'm not sure on," Brookes said. "You'd have to ask the man himself."

"Somebody call me?" a thick Spanish accent asked.

Knuckles looked up to see the bull in question, smirking as he hopped out of the car. "You must be Manuel?"

"Indeed I am," the bull nodded. "And you guys are the freelancers who left your leader behind?"

"I'm the one who shot him, just so you know," Shadow pointed out as the others got out of the car, sans Brookes.

"Yep," Brookes agreed. "Sniped that blue bastard from a long-ass way away."

"That's good," Manuel replied with a smile. "We could use more snipers. Most of my guys are up close and personal, and they like to be very loud."

"Well, luckily, Shadow's the polar opposite of all of that," said Knuckles.

"I can appreciate that," Manuel laughed.

"Say, what are those rooms back there?" Tails asked. "The empty ones, I mean."

"Oh, that's for other stuff that hasn't come in yet," Manuel said. "You may have seen that the weapons that I have are pretty high gear. Hard to find. Well, I'm looking to get more than just offence."

"So, what?" Tails asked. "Body armour, riot shields, stuff like that?"

"All of that and bombs," Manuel replied. "Although, it is hard to find someone who could make a good bomb."

"Tails here is smart enough," said Knuckles. "During our police training, he passed the bomb test faster than anyone else. And that was him disabling it. Imagine how good he'd be at putting them together?"

"I like that mentality," the Spanish bull said. "So, Shadow is the sniper, and Tails is the bomber... that just leaves you, big red."

"Knuckles," the echidna said. "And I'm pretty good at being loud and up close and personal, but I could knock any guy here out with one punch."

"And that's without his cyber enhancements," said Shadow.

"All of you are implanted?" asked Manuel.

"Indeed we are," Tails said. He spun his tails and hovered above the ground for a few seconds before settling back down.

"And this one here can teleport," Knuckles said, pointing to Shadow.

"Really?" Manuel asked.

"Yep," said Brookes. "This guy zipped up to our sniper, took him out, then killed one of us before killing his leader. And that sniper was pretty far away. I wouldn't have trusted that guy's shot in the first place."

"Well, it's handy to have guys like this around," Manuel chuckled. "So, we have a fighter, a sniper, and a bomber... you're going to be a great help to us when we start taking over Mobius." He then looked at Knuckles. "In fact, you'd be damn good at raking in some cash for my fighting ring."

"I'm flattered, but I'd much rather just be given a gun," Knuckles smiled.

"Then you can stay right where you are," Manuel smiled back. "Brookes, I want you to take the others to Beau's place, then up to Lara's. See if we can't get them working for others."

"What about Nack?" Brookes asked.

"He should be with Beau right now, actually. He's making big deliveries for the successful mission that we pulled off today." Manuel then looked up ahead to see a huge Westopolis Police Department truck pull up. "Speaking of which, I've got some new shit to break in." He turned to Knuckles. "Want to help me out?"

"Fucking right," the red echidna smirked.

"I'm not a freaking chauffeur, you know," Brookes said.

"No, but you do like getting paid and not getting murdered," Manuel said. "And, besides, it was Nack's orders. I'd follow them, if I were you."

"All right, fine," the Aqua Lake cop grumbled. "Come on, you two," he said to Shadow and Tails. "Get back in the car."

They followed Brookes inside the vehicle, with Tails speaking first. "Beau and Lara?"

"Beau's a chemist, Lara owns a hotel," Brookes said quickly.

"So... one's a junkie, and the other is a brothel owner?" Shadow asked.

"Well, all of the letters of "hotel" spell "brothel. They're just not in the right order and there's two more letters added."

The two Mobians chuckled as the car started back up, pulling out of the warehouse and back onto the roads of Westopolis.

Meanwhile, just passing through Star Light City was Sonic, riding his hover-board and picking up the speed with it something fierce. He looked at the signal on his phone, smiling in confidence as he heard the sound starting to grow louder.

"Man... Westopolis had better be close..." he said to himself. He then looked up from his phone and sighed. He slid to a stop as he noticed that there was a huge roadblock in his way, with several Star Light vehicles comprising of it, along with barricades and some officers wearing the city's signature police uniform. He hopped off of his board as one of the officers approached him.

"Halt!" said one of the officers. "State your business!"

"I'm just passing through the city," Sonic said. "Trying to get to Westopolis."

"Well, you can't," said the officer. "We've had reports of Green Hill vehicles coming through here to reach Westopolis."

"Right," Sonic nodded. "And you didn't stop those vehicles because..."

"Because we didn't know where they were going..." the officer admitted.

"See, if you were doing your job properly, they wouldn't have been here that long," said Sonic.

"It's not out fault, smart-ass," the officer said. "With all of the buzz surrounding Green Hill and the freelancers within it, things are confusing. Also, those bad guys have a lot of guns with them. What's one hedgehog with a flying skateboard going to do against that?"

"It doesn't matter what this hedgehog is going to do," Sonic said. "What matters is what I'm going to get done. And if you don't let me pass, I will run you over. And then, I'll write a haughty letter of complaint to your boss. Dingo, right?"

The officer shook his head, about to retort when a voice came from behind him. "Sonic?!"

The blue hedgehog looked up and grinned. "Walsh! How the devil are you?"

"Eh, still scaly and still trying to help people," the caiman replied, turning to the other officer. "You go. I've got this."

"Sorry for all of this," Sonic said. "But I don't have time for small talk. I've got friends to save, and they're way behind the other side of this barricade."

"And did you bring any weapons? Backup? Anything besides your board?"

"Well... yes, but not yet," Sonic replied.

"Okay, I like you, but you're going to have to do a lot better than that," Walsh said.

"Look, it'll happen when it happens," Sonic said. "If it helps, I have a phone call from a Westopolis officer, so that's basically free passage to Westopolis."

"And you're going to be skating into a trap with... wait, where are your friends?" Walsh said, looking around.

"Oh, they betrayed me and left off for Westopolis," Sonic said, showing the message thread on his phone to the caiman officer. "Damn bastards left me behind."

Walsh grinned widely. "Oh, you sly devil."

"Hey, I'm not just handsome," Sonic smirked back. "Look, I need to pass through. I have the permission to do it, I have backup waiting for me, and I will have the weapons."

"Well... this barricade is mostly for civilians," said Walsh. "And just because you're not a cop doesn't make you just any civilian." He patted Sonic's arm, turning around to wave to the others. "This guy's good to go through! He's a freelancer, and he has permission to get to Westopolis!"

"Are you sure that that's a good idea?" asked the officer from earlier.

"Absolutely not, but if we want to save people, it's the only idea that we have!" Walsh chuckled.

"Well... all right. But he'd better save our asses." The officer sighed and stepped aside, opening up one of the barricades. "Go on. In you get."

"Starting to really feel welcome," Sonic smiled, putting his board back under his feet. "Sorry to put you through this, by the way."

"Why are you passing through here to get to Westopolis, anyway?" Walsh asked.

"If I took the short way, then the bad guys would catch on too quickly to the plan," Sonic said. "I need to take my time."

"Luckily, it's only a big road from here to Westopolis' docks," said Walsh. "Do you have a water vehicle planned?"

"Um... this," Sonic said, tapping his foot on his board.

"Then you'd best get going," Walsh chuckled.

Sonic nodded, sharing a fist-bump with the caiman. "Thanks, man. You take care of Star Light."

"And you take care of your friends."

The blue hedgehog chuckled and nodded, speeding off again on his board. As he did, he pulled his phone from his pocket. "You guys back at base yet?"

"Just got here," said Avery through his radio. "Yourself?"

"Just got out of Star Light," Sonic said. "I need to take the long way to Westopolis, otherwise I get caught early, and I'm pretty sure that I don't need to tell you how fucked we all are if that happens."

"So, that means that you're off to the docks?" Avery asked.

"I am indeed," Sonic replied, speeding up more. "Do these boards run on water? I may or may not have told one of the officers at the barricade that it can."

"Hmm... hang on," said Avery. He spoke to someone else, which Sonic couldn't understand, and he soon came back. "Charmy says yes."

"Is power an issue?" Sonic asked. "I've been on this board for a long time."

"Oh, power isn't a problem," the commander replied. "You remember? You made it through those obstacle courses pretty well. Sure, a body of water is much larger compared to that, but you all used the same board on the same course and it worked just fine."

"All right, I guess that I can't argue with that," Sonic chuckled. "Oh, I should get to the real reason that I called."

"The airdrop?" Avery chuckled. "When do you want it?"

"Give me... ten minutes," Sonic said. "Or I'll just text you when I'm ready."

"Works for me," Avery said. "Good luck out there."

"Thanks," Sonic replied. "You too. See you in a few."

They both hung up, and Sonic kept speeding onward, thankful that the roads were mostly clear due to the crisis, with the exception of a few cars coming back into the city. As he passed them, he looked over the side of the highway to see the ocean, spotting a city in the distance, nodding to himself with determination as he kept riding.

Back in Westopolis itself, however, Tails was left alone with Beau in the southern snake's office, being instructed on how to make Fokus. "Hmm..." the yellow fox said. "It is a very complex system to make the drug, isn't it?"

"That it is, but it's all of the drugs that we need to make just one," Beau replied. "Think of it like music. A band often gets pigeonholed into a genre because other bands at that time play that style, right? But if you add enough stuff to it..."

"It becomes more transcendent," Tails replied. "It helps the band or artist in question to stand out more."

"Exactly," Beau grinned.

"So, what do all of these drugs do?" Tails asked. "On their own, I mean."

"You're an ex-cop, right?" asked Beau. "Didn't you do your research?"

"On normal drugs, yeah," Tails said. "But that's the usual stuff. Heroin, cocaine, weed, speed, ecstasy, and so on. But these? These are new."

Beau chuckled, picking up the needle first. "Well, this is one of the most important parts. It's called speedball. It's a mixture of heroin and coke, and due to the mixture, it calms down one's internal system as well as fuelling it, making things balanced." He moved along to some powder. "This is devil's breath. This is what Fokus users are given to help give them their focus. The drug itself doesn't have a taste or a smell to it, but add it with everything else, and you've got the perfect concoction."

"What's this other powder?" Tails asked.

"Oh, that is DiPT," said Beau. "On its own, this bad boy makes it sound like you're hearing all sorts of crazy shit. But Nack himself actually reverse engineered this drug to help be the backbone of Fokus."

"How so?" Tails asked.

"Well, DiPT's normal effects are constant ringing in the ears and nausea that lasts for two full weeks," Beau pointed out. "But Nack made a version where it can last for as long as the user wishes. And when it's mixed with the devil's breath, it makes for some interesting results."

"Is that why that one guy is working so hard down there?" Tails asked, pointing out of a window from Beau's office to the main factory.

"You bet your two-tailed ass," the snake said. "One shot of Fokus, and there he goes."

"Well... that leaves this last one," Tails said, pointing to a needle with red sludge in it. "I... wait, I think I've heard of this one. Krokodil, right?"

"The boy knows his drugs," Beau chuckled. "Yep, you hit the nail right on the head with that one."

"I know that it's nasty stuff. Takes people's skin clean off of their bones," Tails said.

"Sort of," Beau said. "It causes skin to turn scaly and then just peel off. Like crocodile skin."

"I know a crocodile, and I remember seeing an overdose victim courtesy of Fokus," Tails said. "The scales from krokodil are so not like an actual crocodile's skin. It's just creepy."

"True, but it does add to the consequence of the drug," Beau replied. "With that in mind, the krokodil does add an element of addiction to the Fokus, so it is a crucial component. After all, if you can't get addicted to them, then what's the point of doing drugs?"

"Do you partake?" Tails asked.

"Sometimes," the snake nodded. "I've cut down a bit since working more full time for Nack, though. Doesn't mean that I can't sample my own product." He finished putting a needle together, handing it to Tails.

"Oh, I'm good, thanks," the yellow fox said.

"It's not for you," Beau chuckled. "Just inject it into one of the workers. Tell them that we need to add more DiPT."

"How will I know which one needs it?" Tails asked.

"Look for the one who looks like he's had sleep recently," Beau chuckled.

Tails nodded, taking the needle from Beau before heading out of the room. He made his way down the stairs, looking around at the workers. Some were in a catatonic state as thanks to the Fokus, so Tails knew that he had to look for the right person. He soon found said person, a human, and injected the needle into his arm.

"Hmm?" the human asked.

"Beau wants you to add more DiPT into the mix," Tails said.

The human gave a yawn in reply before grabbing the drug in question and adding it to one of the needles that he was working on. Tails looked to see Beau looking out the window, giving Tails a thumbs-up, which the two-tailed fox returned.

'I wonder where Shadow is?' Tails thought to himself. 'More to the point, I wonder how far away Sonic is too...'

"Yo, Tails!" Beau called. "You good?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm good," Tails replied, getting back up the stairs. "So, what's next?"

"Got a shipment coming in," Beau replied. "Want to help with it?"

"Sure," Tails nodded.

Beau grinned. "Oh, bring a couple of needles, just in case we need to influence the guy a bit more."

Tails merely nodded, looking over what he was currently making and grinning. "No problem..."

Shadow, meanwhile, was sat across a kitchen table from Lara, who made no effort to turn off her charms. "So let me get this straight," the black and red hedgehog started. "You want me to be a bodyguard for a brothel?"

"Is there a problem?" Lara asked.

"Well, I'm already kinda spoken for, for one," Shadow replied.

"Oh, that's no trouble," Lara insisted. "I can just tell the girls that you're off-limits. Which is a shame, as you do have that sexy bad boy thing going on for you."

"Well, what about where I'd live?" Shadow asked. "I can't just leave my caretaker in Green Hill. She needs me..."

"What's her name?" Lara asked.

"Maria," Shadow said. "She and I... we kinda need each other."

"Is she the one who's spoken for you?" the tigress asked.

"It's... complicated," Shadow said.

"Complicated? Well, that can often be fixed with some sex, but you don't seem like that type of guy," Lara said. "You're... kind of a rarity."

"Look, I just want to be a bodyguard," Shadow said. "I only ask that I get to send money over to her so that she can pay things off."

"Hey," Lara said, reaching to touch Shadow's hand, "it's okay. You met Manuel earlier, right?"

"Yeah," the black and red hedgehog answered with a nod. "Why?"

"He's got his own girls to look after," Lara said. "Not long ago, they were caught with drugs, and nobody knows how they got them, but it wasn't anyone that we know."

"Sounds dangerous," Shadow said. "Are they okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine," Lara smiled. "I like how you're concerned about two people who you don't know."

"Well, you're willing to help me send money out to my friend," Shadow said. "No harm in reciprocating, right?"

"I suppose not," Lara giggled. "So, with all of that having been said, are you okay with a position here?"

"I would imagine that your girls know quite a lot of positions," Shadow smirked.

"Ah, good one," the tigress winked. She sat back and reached a foot up to stroke Shadow's calf. "So... are you okay with joining?"

Shadow moved his leg away and nodded as he stood up. "Sure. Is there anywhere specific you want me to guard?"

"Hmm... my office," Lara said, also standing up. "But... well, I usually seal my deals in a certain way..." she stood close to him and licked his cheek, moving to kiss his neck until she was stopped.

"You don't have to do that with me," Shadow said, gently pushing against Lara's shoulder. "I'll take the job. Just pay me with money, not pussy."

Lara giggled and nodded, extending a hand. "No harm in shaking on it, right?"

"Eh... I suppose not," Shadow shrugged.

His hand made contact with Lara's own, and soon, the tigress pulled the black and red hedgehog in for a kiss. More out of kindness than out of lust, Shadow kissed her back, smiling a bit into it before he broke the kiss.

"So... we have a deal?" Lara asked.

"We do," Shadow nodded.

Lara smiled. "Good. Now... what would you like for lunch?"

"Ah, yes," Shadow chuckled. "We never actually ordered since we were too busy talking this over."

"It's no problem," the grey tigress smiled, snapping her fingers.

A girl walked over, menu in hand. "What would you two like to order?"

"Say, do you guys make pork ribs?" Shadow asked.

"We do," Lara nodded. "Hot and cold. Why?"

"Eh, it's just a little piece of back home," Shadow shrugged. He then felt his phone vibrating. "Hmm..."

"What is it?" Lara asked.

"Um... private call. Am I allowed to go outside for a little bit?" Shadow asked.

"By all means," Lara smiled. "Your food will be here when you get back. Oh, which ribs did you want?"

"Cold, please," Shadow said, standing up from his seat.

The waitress nodded, going to put the order in for Shadow as the black and red hedgehog left through the kitchen and soon found himself outside the building, answering the phone. "How far away are you?" he asked.

"I'm just coming up to the city now," Sonic replied. "I'm sorry that it took so long. I wanted to take the long way to get up here. Doesn't raise suspicions as much, you know?"

"I get that," Shadow nodded.

"So, what are you up to?"

"Waiting on my hero to save me," Shadow said, deadpan. "Actually, I just got hired to be a bodyguard at a brothel."

"Well, looks like you'll have to terminate your contract early," Sonic said.

"Wouldn't be the first time I lost a job on the first day," Shadow chuckled.

"Dude, low blow," the blue hedgehog smirked. "All right, just keep your GPS on. I'm coming for you first. And I have a present for you that you just might like."

"You stay safe," Shadow replied. "See you when you get here." He then saw one of the guards outside looking at him. "Um... I love you too, mum!" he said.

"Aw!" Sonic gushed sarcastically before hanging up.

He looked ahead at the docks of Westopolis, riding his board up and jumping onto the beach nearby. In contrast to the rest of the city, the beach was surprisingly clean looking. Shaking that thought out of his head, Sonic pulled his phone out, texting Avery. He got one back, and was confused as he read it.

"The chopper is right behind you. We had to keep it up high in the sky so that it didn't get seen by others," the text read.

Sonic smiled and texted back. "Thank you, Avery. This will probably be my last text for a little while. I've got asses to kick and friends to rescue, and maybe not necessarily in that order."

"Best of luck," came the reply.

Sonic nodded, turning the phone back to GPS mode as he moved from the beach to the main land of the city. He saw many dilapidated cars and buildings, and even took note of a prostitute walking by him and giving him a once over... and then a twice over for good measure.

Sonic gulped nervously as he brushed the woman aside, looking up to see the chopper lowering overhead, a few metres ahead of him. He pulled out one of his grenades and threw it over to where the chopper was hovering, marking the zone for the chopper to land its pair of crates, attached by a magnetised hook.

The moment that the sound of the crates echoed across the ground, Sonic couldn't help his grin. He sped up on his board and reached the crates in question, opening them up. Inside were enough weapons for his friends to escape, as he didn't need much since they still had their freelancer gear.

The other crate contained his friends' boards, and he gathered them up and saw a button on one of them. Curious, he pushed the button, and was quite relieved to see that the board had shrunk in size. He did it to the other ones before raising an eyebrow and hopping off of his own board, looking around it before finding a button.

"Was that always there?" he asked himself. "Ah, questions for another time."

He set the board back down, thankful that a backpack had come with everything else. When it was good to go, he attached the hook back to the now empty crates, giving a thumbs up for the chopper to take off. He waved goodbye as it left before turning around and speeding off on his board.

"Just a little bit longer, guys..." Sonic said to himself.

Meanwhile, at Manuel's warehouse, Knuckles was at a gym, landing shots on a heavy bag as Manuel held it, the bull speaking first. "So, your implants make you stronger, right?"

"Something like that," Knuckles said, throwing some body shots.

"How strong? Can you bench press a car?"

The red echidna chuckled. "Not exactly. But I did punch a hole in one once out of frustration. It's how I discovered my power."

"That's got to be tough, huh?" Manuel smirked, stepping away from the bag. "Prove it."

"Prove what?" Knuckles asked.

"Punch the bag."

Knuckles shrugged and threw a simple straight left punch to the bag. "Like that?"

"No, I mean like, use your implant," Manuel chuckled. "Blast the bag to pieces or knock it off the chain. Up to you."

"I'm not some performing monkey," Knuckles defended. "Just get back to the bag."

"No," Manuel said, defying Knuckles. "Hell, I want you to prove how strong you are. And if you won't throw at the bag, maybe you'll throw at an opponent?"

"A living one?" Knuckles asked. "Just trying to clarify."

"Yes, smart-ass," the Spanish bull replied.

"All right, well, I should get some gear on," the red echidna replied.

"No, you're good as you are," Manuel said. "Bare knuckle fights are pretty much what we do best."

"They're also the most illegal type of fighting," Knuckles said, before grinning. "I'm in. Who do I get to knock on their sorry ass?"

"Kerry!" Manuel called.

As he did, a yellow eagle with green eyes and wearing a blue muscle shirt and black shorts stepped up. "Yes, boss?"

"Get in the ring with Knuckles," Manuel said.

"The new guy?" Kerry said. "He won't last a minute in there. It'll be fun to break him in."

"Well, now that you've said that, I kind of have to beat the shit out of you now," Knuckles smirked.

Eddie chuckled, turning to a nearby boxing ring. He slipped past the ropes, getting into the ring to meet with his opponent in the middle, shaking hands with him. Manuel mimicked a bell going off, and the two in the ring got to fighting.

Back at Lara's place, Shadow was standing inside the tiger's office, clearing his throat at the awkward silence. "So... do I just stand here all day?"

"Well, you could bend me over the desk and fuck my brains out, but you're a faithful man," Lara smiled. "That's difficult to find, and even harder for a man to maintain whenever he bumps into one of my girls."

Shadow shook his head a bit, about to reply when he saw a blue blur of some sort pass by the window. "Speaking of which, I think that we have another customer coming in."

"Ooh, nice eyesight," Lara giggled, standing up from her papers. "You know, you'd think that this job would be much more exciting given the amount of sex, but there's paperwork in everything."

"Even drug pushing and arms races?" Shadow asked.

"The very same," the tigress replied. The bell then went off, and she turned to Shadow. "Could you get the door for me?"

Shadow nodded, getting another text on his phone. He sighed a bit, merely nodding again before leaving Lara's office door. He headed down the stairs and opened the front door, nodding to the two guards stood out front as he greeted a blue hedgehog.

"Hello," he said. "And you are?"

"Oh, I'm Sonic. I just got back from a long trip, and I need to relax."

"Well, don't worry," Shadow smiled, reaching behind his back. "We've got plenty of girls here to satisfy your every need."

He then grinned, turning to strike the guard on the left around the side of his head. The guard managed to recover quickly, throwing a punch which Shadow dodged, slipping behind the guard and tripping him whilst placing a hand on his chest, knocking the wind out of him. For good measure, the black and red hedgehog mounted the guard and landed several punches to knock him out.

Sonic handled the other guard with ease, jumping with a knife to slash at his cheek before dodging a punch to the face only to be countered to the stomach. Sonic then grabbed a kick to his body, keeping it locked in place before sweeping the guard, landing a knee to his stomach to wind him to the point of sending him unconscious.

The two hedgehogs then turned to each other, slapping their hands together and pulling in for a hug. "I was worried about you, man," Shadow said.

"I know," Sonic smirked. "But we can't waste time. We've got to get out of here."

"What the fuck?!" a voice called. Shadow and Sonic turned to see Lara, and Shadow just smirked.

"Yeah... I'm going to have to quit," he shrugged. "Pushing pussy around like that just isn't my style."

"You do know that I have other friends in the city, right?" Lara said.

"Oh, we know," Sonic nodded. "We're actually going to see them right now. Nice to see you."

"Go fuck yourselves," Lara scowled.

Shadow and Sonic chuckled, bumping fists and getting on their hover-boards, taking off quickly. Sonic turned to Shadow and handed some guns over to him. "Had to call in a favour from an old friend," he explained.

Shadow shrugged, slinging a shotgun over his shoulder. "Smart thinking. But you took one hell of a risk with this plan of yours."

"That's what a good team leader does," Sonic said. "Sometimes, they need to make up a strategy on the fly, no matter how lethal it may sound."

"Oh, so now you're team leader all of a sudden," Shadow smirked.

"And a damn good one at that, I'll have you know," Sonic grinned back. "Come on. Let's go save our big red boy."

"Phrasing..." Shadow muttered.

The two laughed and carried on their ride on their boards, soon finding Manuel's warehouse thanks to a combination of Shadow's directions and Knuckles having his GPS activated to make it easier to find him.

The two hedgehogs sailed up to one of the staircases outside of the warehouse, climbing up to find a window to peer through. As they did, they saw Knuckles in a bare fist brawl with what seemed to be his third opponent as two more were on the ground next to the ring, wincing in pain with their faces bleeding, bruised, or both.

Knuckles dodged an incoming hook and landed a right hook of his own to knock out his third opponent, merely shrugging before going to his corner to get a drink. As he did, he heard his phone go off, and pulled it out to read what it said, merely smirking.

"You happy with yourself?" Manuel asked.

"You bet your ass," Knuckles replied.

"Why-" Manuel was cut off by a phone call, seeing that it was Lara. "Yeah?"

"Manuel! Don't trust that echidna! He has friends there trying to save him!" Lara warned.

"I don't see-"

The bull was cut off again, but this time by falling glass and a grenade falling down. Before anyone could process what was happening, the grenade exploded into a bunch of tiny ball bearings, spreading around and hitting everyone with the exception of Knuckles, who was just quick enough to dodge the painful weapon.

Not long after, the two hedgehogs who made the mess in the first place dropped down, careful of the glass below them. "Get dressed," Sonic said. "We're leaving."

"Whatever you say, dad," the red echidna said drily.

Manuel, grunting a bit from the pain, sat up. "You... you fucking traitor!"

"Eh, I'm sure that you'll get a chance at revenge," Knuckles winked, putting his clothes back on quickly. "I'll be seeing you!"

As the freelancers started leaving, some of Manuel's men had recovered, beginning to fire away at the escapees but not hitting them, their efforts only becoming more fruitless as the three sped up on their boards to leave.

"Where do we go?" Sonic asked.

"We've got to go around the back!" Knuckles said. "We're closer to that end, and it shuts down slower than the front does!"

The others nodded, heading for the back of the warehouse, just barely making it under the large metal security door by the skin of their teeth. They all gave a cheer as they rounded the side of the warehouse, happy to be free as they cleared it.

"Tails is on the west side," Sonic pointed out. "He's pretty far away."

"He's working for some snake dude to work on Fokus," Knuckles pointed out. "We didn't get to see much of him beforehand, and we don't have anything about the drug."

Sonic smiled and pulled out his phone. "Then let's find out!" He typed a text to Tails which read, "Got Knucklehead and Edgy. On my way to you now."

"Getting a shipment in," Tails replied. "See you when you get here. And don't reply to this message."

Sonic merely nodded, pocketing his phone and turning to the others. "Let's go."

Tails, meanwhile, was with Beau and a few other of his henchmen as they were at a parking lot not far away from their factory. A shady character showed up in a fancy sports car, holding two bags of various types of drugs and handing them over to Beau.

"Your boss already paid it off," he said.

"I'll have to thank him later," Beau chuckled. "This is everything, right?"

"Check and double check," the dealer said. "DiPT, speedball, krokodil... fuck, everything."

Beau shook the bags, nodding in satisfaction and handing them over to Tails. "Would you mind repaying the man in kind?"

"How?" Tails asked.

"Make the man some Fokus," Beau said.

The dealer pointed at the two-tailed fox. "He's a newbie, and you brought him to our deal?"

"He might be new, but he's a smart kid," Beau defended. "He's just not big on drugs themselves."

"Then he's either really smart for not taking drugs or really dumb for not knowing how to make them," the dealer complained. "And besides, you can keep your needles. I don't have all day, and I have a lot of deliveries to make."

"Fine," the Southern snake sighed. "See you around."

The dealer gave a wave of riddance and walked back to his car, starting it up and leaving the parking lot. Tails shook his head, looking at all of the drugs in his hands. "You know, your sales pitch could use some work."

"As could your synthesising of Fokus," Beau chuckled. "Are you sure that you don't want to try some?"

"One hundred percent," Tails nodded.

Beau nodded, then heard his phone ringing. He picked it up. "Hello? Hmm? Oh... really?" He peered over at Tails before turning his head away. "Right. Okay... and they're on their way here?"

Tails gulped, attempting to get away before Beau grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "Let me go," Tails growled.

"I'll make sure that he gets the message," Beau said to his phone, hanging up before turning back to Tails. "Oh, you really are one sly fox. You've got friends on their way to help you!"

Tails smirked. "And what are you going to do about that?"

"I dunno," Beau shrugged. "I was thinking maybe this..."

A needle shot out from Beau's sleeve, and he quickly grabbed Tails from behind and pushed the needle against the fox's neck to inject him. "Now, you work for me... understood?"

Tails nodded weakly. "Y-Yes, sir..."

"Good," Beau replied. He then heard an odd sound. "Ah, it must be your friends! Now, as part of your deal, I want you to go out there and kill them!"

Tails gave another nodded, wandering wearily to the source of the sound. There, he saw Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles, who were all attempting to walk over and greet him, but were surprised when Tails spun and swung his tails at them, not hitting them but knocking them back.

"Oh, what the hell is this noise?" Knuckles asked. "We came all this way, and you're the main bad guy? You, of all people?"

Tails just gave a wink, patting his left breast pocket before mouthing, "play along."

Knuckles smiled. "Bring it on!"

Tails nodded, spinning his tails to stay in midair like a furry yellow helicopter. He dove down and delivered a kick to Sonic, who tried dodging but the kick was turned into a stomp. Knuckles was next, trying to swing his fists up at Tails only to have his arms grabbed by the fox's hands. The fox then lifted Knuckles up and dropped him on top of Shadow, who didn't have enough time to dodge. Tails landed back down on the ground, turning back to face Beau.

"It is done," he said, his voice still robotic. "Now what?"

Beau chuckled. "Now, let's kill them," he said. He pulled out a pistol from his side holster and walked over, aiming it at the three before Tails' hand stopped his.

"I... I want to..." Tails said.

Beau was surprised, but smirked and handed Tails the gun. The two-tailed fox nodded in approval before turning to shoot the snake in his foot. Beau let out a pained hiss, holding his shoe which was dripping with blood as he glared up at Tails.

"What the fuck?!" he grunted. "How?"

"Oh, you know those needles you asked me to bring?" Tails smiled. "I changed the recipe of one of them to have no effect at all."

Beau grinned. "You're one smart cookie." He extended a hand. "How about a business handshake?"

"I'll do you one better," Tails said.

He reached to touch the snake's hand before turning and wrenching it, causing Beau to yelp in pain before stepping on Beau's bloody foot, causing another pained screech. Tails then pushed Beau with one hand and tripped him with the other to make him land flat on his ass, kneeling on his chest. Before the snake could react, Tails pulled out a second needle, injecting it into Beau's neck.

"You're going to tell me where Nack is and what his private number is so that we can reach him," Tails spoke.

Beau chuckled. "You... you think I haven't built up something to counter the effectiveness of the drug?"

"Oh, I figured as much," Tails smiled. "See, with what little info we have about Fokus back home, there's not really many ways to figure out new strains. Luckily, I'm a smart cookie." He then, to Beau's surprise, pulled out a third needle, injecting it again into the snake's neck. "Now... where is Nack?"

"In... an abandoned prison..." the snake said. "Here... I'll even give you his private number..." He spoke it out, and as he did, Sonic typed the number into his phone.

"I hope to hell that this works," the blue hedgehog said.

"Beau?" Nack asked on the other side.

"Not quite," Sonic replied.

"Who exactly is this?" Nack said. "I want to know the name so that I can kill whoever it is that took Beau's phone."

"Oh, he's not dead," Sonic said. "He's too high priority at the moment. But... we're not here for him anyway."

"And who exactly is this "we" of which you speak?"

"Oh, this is Sonic."

"Sonic... Sonic... oh! That's right!" Nack chuckled. "I'm the one who almost took your girlfriend and made her my bitch!"

Sonic grit his teeth a bit. "Not to mention all the guns you've been pushing, drugs you've been selling, prostitutes you've been throwing around, people you've killed, property you've destroyed... you have quite a laundry list of crimes that could put you away for a very long time."

Nack chuckled. "Kid, if you want me put away for a long time, you should use a more lethal method. Like, I don't know, a car accident."

"That was you?" Sonic growled.

"Yeah. I figured that, if I could make some new cops just disappear, they wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, due to recent breakthroughs in medical technology, you came back stronger than before," Nack said. "And yet, you still lost your job somehow."

"Maybe it was because we were chasing down some wannabe mob boss throughout different cities," Sonic said. "Luckily, since we're freelancers now, we can go-"

"Wherever you want, right?" Nack chuckled. "Sonic... I'll admit that I don't know every last little goddamned thing about how policing works, but I know that cops from certain cities can't go to others to help, right? Freelancers are just the same."

"And we got called here for backup," Sonic said.

"And that was a trap," Nack said. "I bet that you didn't even go and help those poor Westopolis cops, did you?"

"What, the ones that set up the trap for our convoy and killed everybody?" Sonic asked. "How could I possibly have known that it was a trap to come here?" he added, with more sarcasm.

"Say what you will. I still stole some of your Green Hill vehicles."

"And you didn't even have to get your hands dirty."

The purple weasel chuckled. "The best bad guys never do, Sonic."

"Please don't call me by name," Sonic replied. "It just sounds weird when you say it."

"Well, I would call you Soon-To-Be-Dead-Rookie-Cop-Who-Is-In-Way-Over-His-Head, but we don't have enough time for that."

"I've almost died twice already," Sonic chuckled. "One of them was because of you, and the other was on purpose."

"How do you almost kill yourself on purpose?" Nack asked.

"Simple. I have friends."

"So, you broke them out, huh?" Nack chuckled. "Smart. I was wondering why my three best business associates were assaulting me with calls and text and emails about some annoying blue bastard who just couldn't leave well enough alone."

"Don't even start that bullshit, Nack," Sonic warned. "You're the one who came to Green Hill in the first place."

"To enact a humble drug deal," Nack defended. "But you couldn't keep your fucking nose out of it. You led your friends to get hurt, Sonic."

"No, he didn't," Tails said, overhearing. "We followed him to try and chase your sorry ass down. It's not Sonic's fault that you set up a car to try and kill us."

"Yeah," Knuckles added. "He gave us every out that he could, and we still stuck with him."

"Because he's not some business associate," Shadow said, turning to Sonic and smiling. "He's our friend."

After a few moments of silence, Nack sighed. "I see. Well, in that case, you're all just as stupid and naive as your leader. If you come to the prison, you will find nothing here. You're under-equipped, out-manned, and you don't know your damn way around the city."

"Your snake friend told us that you're in an abandoned prison," Sonic said. "Not that that helps, since every place in Westopolis looks either abandoned, like an actual prison, or both."

"It's near the centre of the city," Nack said. "Close to the north. Actually, everywhere you just were to save your friends was close enough to the centre of the city, but each place still had its own side to push stuff."

"Thanks for the advice, but we're only focused on you for now," Sonic said. "We'll keep our eyes open for you."

Nack chuckled. "See you when you get here." He then chuckled and hanged up.

Sonic did the same. "Well... that settles that."

"Are we really going after him?" Shadow asked.

"We've come this far," Knuckles pointed out. "It's too late to back down now."

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "I've got a plan..."

"Oh? What is it?" Tails asked.

Sonic merely gave a grin in reply.

Meanwhile, Nack sat back, rubbing his temples as he switched the computer in front of him off. "Well... looks like this is the home stretch."

"Anything you want us to do?" asked one of his henchmen.

"The only thing that I need you to do is keep those four busy whilst I escape."

"So, you're not staying here to see them one last time?" the other henchman asked.

"Not for too long," Nack replied. "I'll hold up my end and see them one last time. Then you guys jump in and attack them when they least expect it."

"We barely defeated them last time," said one henchman. "And we were taking on one each with that echidna and that black hedgehog who thinks that he's cool."

The purple weasel smirked and pulled out a pair of needles from his suit pocket. "Good thing that I had Beau make these for me."

"Fokus? Are you sure that it's a good idea?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. But it's the only idea that I have right now."

The other goon sighed. "How do you plan on using those on us?"

"Well, when I use them, you'll find out," Nack said. "I just hope that it doesn't affect you too much."

"We've never had drugs in our system, and alcohol doesn't affect us much," said the other guard. "There's no telling what Fokus could do to us."

"Then how about we find out?" Nack said. "It'll be easy."

The two goons looked at each other, giving a simple nod before holding out their arms. Nack walked up to the first guard to inject him, the needle taking instant effect on the henchman, causing him to grunt a bit.

"What was that?" asked the other guard.

"Oh, I asked Beau to give me a higher strain just in case," Nack explained. "It's mostly to help new customers get into the drug, but he gave me a freebie."

"Do you plan on making us both fight?"

"No," Nack said, getting another needle. "Now hold still."

The bodyguard stayed in place, soon getting his own dose of Fokus injected into his neck. "What do we do now?"

"I'll tell you," Nack smiled. "I want you to take every bag of money, every drug, piece of porn, form of weapon... anything that we need to push, I want you to put it all into one vehicle and drive to the centre of Westopolis, and bury it all in the park."

"I can do that," the guard nodded.

"Oh," Nack said, getting a disk from his pocket. "Give that to either Manuel, Beau, or Lara. It doesn't matter who receives it as long as they all watch it together."

"Anything else?"

"Yes," the purple weasel said. "Just hang on."

The goon nodded, and the second guard looked over to Nack. "What about me?"

"You are the one who will do the fighting," Nack said with a smirk. "I just need you to hold off Sonic and the others."

"Anything after that?"

"Well, this drug works better as a higher strain," Nack muttered. "Um, yes. I want you to hold them off, but not fight them. When the time is right, let them defeat you. Then, when they've passed you by, join the other guard."

"But that'll just leave you behind..."

"I know," the purple weasel said. "But that's just a risk that I'm willing to take." He looked between both guards. "Are we understood?"

"Yes, sir," they both replied.

Nack pointed to the first one. "Get to the garage and gather everything. But don't go until the other one comes down. Got it?"

"Clear as day," the first henchman said. He then turned, heading towards the garage. As he kept moving, he heard a sound. "I think they're here!" he said, rushing to the garage.

Nack nodded to the second guard. "Keep them busy."

The second guard nodded, walking to the front door of the prison and waiting by the side. Soon enough, there was a knock from the other side, and a voice soon followed, causing the guard to put a hand on the gun holster in his coat.

"Hello? Nack? You in there?" Sonic's voice asked.

The guard pressed a button to open up the door, sticking to the side. He waited patiently for the blue hedgehog to enter, and he did... all on his own. The guard remained where he was, not daring to do so much as breathe.

"Yo!" Sonic called. "Nack! If you're in here, then show yourself! My guys are waiting outside, and we'll take you into custody! No hassle, no violence. Poke your head out from wherever you're hiding, and we can make this easy."

The guard grunted and grabbed Sonic from behind, holding his arms by the elbows. Sonic quickly moved his hands down to his sides and shook himself free from the guard, turning to face him before speaking.

"Don't you usually have another goon with you?" he asked.

"He's a bit preoccupied at the moment..." the guard said.

"Ah. Then this'll be easy."

Sonic rushed to duck under one of the guard's blows, coming around with a punch to the stomach, but having not much effect. He dodged another swing for his head, but this one felt faster than the previous one. Sonic kept his head level, dodging slightly to the left, but missed the knee rising up to his gut. He was hit square in the belly, winding him and causing him to fall onto his hands and knees, gasping a bit for air.

"You were right," the guard said, raising a closed fist. "This was easy..."

He swung it down, and Sonic defended it with his hand, only to get a front kick to his face, causing his head to snap back as he was pretty sure that he felt something break. He was laid on his back on the ground, and the guard mounted him, ready to land a final blow before a buzzing sound on his phone got his attention.

"I'm on my way," the guard said to his phone, turning back to Sonic. "You got lucky. Or... well, maybe not so much..."

Sonic, still in a daze, sat up slowly as the guard ran away. The blue hedgehog unsteadily rose to his feet, feeling a coppery taste touch his lips. He wiped some blood from his muzzle before tracing the trail upwards, feeling that his nose was busted.

"Fuck... there goes my precious modelling career..." he deadpanned. He shook his head to try and get his senses back before carrying on through the prison. "Nack... I know that you're here somewhere. Your goons ran off without you, so you've got nobody to protect you." He kept taking steps near a more central area of the prison. "If you've run away already and I'm here looking like a fucking idiot, I'm not going to be happy."

Suddenly, a bunch of lights turned on, bearing down on Sonic's face. The sunlight outside did nothing to aid in brightening up the murky - albeit surprisingly well-maintained - prison, and Sonic's eyes closed sharply from the sudden influx of brightness.

"And now you're trying to blind me?" Sonic asked. "Weak sauce, dude."

"Not trying to blind you," said Nack's voice over the intercom. "I was just trying to distract you. Also, does this intercom work? It's hard to tell. We haven't gotten all of the electronics set up in the prison, so it's a bit awkward."

"It pains me to say it, but yeah," Sonic said. "I can hear you just fine. And obviously, you can hear me too, right?"

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Not how my name is pronounced, but I appreciate the response," Sonic said. "So... you said that it was distraction, right? From what?"

"From the fuck-ton of guns that are pointing right at you," Nack said.

The blue hedgehog was confused, but then the lights dimmed down, and he saw the gleams of several firearms aimed at him, many of which had laser pointers of different colours attached, pointing to various parts of his body.

Sonic's shoulders sagged. "Oh, great... well, I guess that this is how the hero dies, right?" he called out, looking around. "Good guy chases bad guy, gets the shit kicked out of him by one of the guards, guard runs away, and good guy chases bad guy again only to walk into a room full of ass-holes with guns pointing at him held by said ass-holes who have very itchy trigger fingers. Did I about sum it up?"

"Just about," Nack said. "Men, fire away!"

The men got ready to fire their guns, but Sonic raised his arms up. "Wait! Before you shoot, I have something to say!"

"Make it quick," said Nack. "And make it worth it. They will be your last words, after all."

Sonic nodded. "Oh, don't you worry about that. See... I forgot to mention another part of the story that I just laid out."

"What would that be?" Nack asked.

"This part," Sonic smiled. He turned to his shoulder mic. "Now!"

Before any bad guys could respond, something quick zipped past them and knocked one of them down, with a grenade dropping next to him. Before the rest in that group could notice, the grenade went off, letting out a bundle of electricity, causing all in the vicinity to be shocked and stunned. Then, gunfire happened, but it came from behind Sonic. The blue hedgehog looked up to see Tails floating and using his tails, holding Knuckles and Shadow up, both of whom were holding pistols and firing at the men who had been shocked.

Once Sonic saw his chance to get out of the situation, he made it to some nearby cover, using one of the old walls of the prison to hide behind before speaking into his mic. "Good execution of the plan!"

"You know, you're really good at this on-the-fly thinking!" said Tails setting Knuckles and Shadow on the ground. "And yes, that was a pun!"

"Good one," Sonic said. "Now, get your asses over here."

Before they could move, Shadow glanced and saw a small red dot on Tails' head. He quickly grabbed Knuckles and shoved him into Tails to move him out of the way before looking up and seeing the sniper. Shadow quickly used his teleport to appear behind the sniper, who turned around, knife at the ready. He swiped at Shadow, but the hedgehog dodged it, grabbed the sniper's arm with both hands, and slammed it against the wall, causing the knife to drop right onto Shadow's shoe. Shadow kicked the knife up to his hand and quickly cut the sniper's throat, looking across to see another sniper.

Shadow ducked from the incoming shot, managing to get to the sniper rifle nearby from the man he'd just killed, and quickly popped over his cover to deliver a quick head shot. After this, he looked down to his friends still fighting off the others, with Sonic still stuck in cover. Shadow aimed down the scope and took out nearby bad guys, making things easier on Tails and Knuckles as well, both of whom joined their blue friend.

"Where's Shadow at?" Sonic asked.

"Sniping at the minute," the black and red hedgehog's voice replied on the radio. "You guys need to put the work in too. I can't get them all from up here."

"We're on it!" Knuckles said.

The red echidna pulled a shotgun from his holster as Tails grabbed two pistols, handing one to Sonic. Nodding, Sonic peered around the side of the cover to take out enemies closing in on the left flank, with Tails using his flight to take on enemies coming right for them. Knuckles had the right side covered, using his shotgun and physical fighting prowess to battle them off.

"We can't fight forever!" Tails said as he fired.

"I agree," Shadow said, firing another shot and killing another bad guy. "What is the plan? Do we have one?"

"Go get Nack," Sonic said. "That's as far as I've come."

"Then you go get him," Knuckles said, ducking a punch. He countered with his gun before swinging the butt around the bad guy's head to knock him out, aiming at someone else close to pump them full of lead. "We'll hold down the fort here!"

Sonic peeked from cover to take out two more closing in. "You sure?"

"We can handle these bastards!" Tails said. "Go take care of the head bastard, okay?"

"Got it," Sonic smirked. He looked up and threw his pistol back up to Tails. "You need it more than I do!"

Tails nodded in thanks, firing and killing more bad guys on the way. "Just go! Catch that son of a bitch!"

"I need an opening!" Sonic said, seeing more close in. He pulled out his SMG and fired some shots to clear them. "Knuckles! Help me over here! Shadow, snipe on the right side!"

"Got it!" Knuckles said.

He rushed over to Sonic's side and lifted his gun, starting to blast the enemies away, with some air support from Tails helping too. Shadow helped too, firing several shots before running out on the rifle. He sighed and teleported over to the other side to grab the other sniper rifle, staying where he was to support his friends below.

Knuckles fired a few more shots before turning to face Sonic. The two nodded at each other, and Knuckles turned his head. "Tails, Shadow, group up here!"

Tails quickly dropped from where he was flying, using his tails to speed him over back to cover. Shadow used a quick teleport, still carrying his sniper rifle, and as they all gathered around, they gave a nod, standing up. Tails and Knuckles stood side by side with Shadow just behind with his sniper, and Sonic behind him. Sonic then started to rush over to a nearby ramp which lead upwards, and as he ran, the other three rushed out as well, firing shots at the bad guys before rolling to join Sonic.

"We all good? Nobody's harmed?" Sonic asked.

The other three checked for injuries, thankfully unscathed. "We're fine," Tails spoke. "Well, in a physical sense, at the very least."

"What happened to your nose, by the way?" Knuckles asked.

"One of Nack's henchmen." The blue hedgehog chuckled, taking the guns from his back and handing them to his friends. "All right, I'm going to get that Nack fellow that we've heard so much about."

"Are you sure that going in without a gun is a good idea?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic pulled a knife from his pocket, the same one that Shadow had shot earlier to fake Sonic's death. "If he's half a good a businessman as he is a straight up weasel, then he'll be interested in a fair fight."

"What if he's not?" Shadow asked.

"Then I'd best pop him before the weasel pops me," Sonic said.

"God, that was awful," Tails groaned.

"I... I chose not to help that," Sonic smiled, seeing the bad guys get closer. "Shit... I've got to go."

"You'd better bring that ass-hole in," Tails winked.

"Come on, you know me," Sonic said. "Do I seem like the type of guy who's dumb enough to lead his friends to death twice in one week and a bit?" He then paused. "Actually... don't answer that. See you later."

With that, he turned to run away, leaving Knuckles, Shadow, and Tails all together, with the red echidna speaking first. "He'll come back."

"He'd better," Tails replied. "I swear, if he winds up dead, I'll find a way to resurrect him and kill him myself."

"Come on, be realistic," Shadow said. "We're a bunch of anthropomorphic animals with access to high-tech weaponry and we have cybernetic implants that give us superpowers. Resurrection ain't a thing. And yes, before you bring it up, I know what I just said, and I stand by it."

"Well, when you're done flapping your lips," Tails grinned, "we've got bad guys."

"Then I'd best get back up top," Shadow said, teleporting back up to his spot from earlier. "Remember, we've got to take these guys out before Sonic is done with Nack. We're on his time, after all."

"Such a demanding boss that we have," Tails chuckled, turning to Knuckles. "Ready to go?"

"When am I not ready?" Knuckles said. "Actually, like Sonic said earlier, don't answer that."

The two shared another laugh before heading back to their cover, staying side by side as they took out impending bad guys, with Shadow's sniper support continuing to help. Tails jerked his head to Shadow, who saw it through his scope, focusing his fire on the bad guys closing in on the covered position of his friends.

Sonic, leaving his friends and she sounds of gunfire behind, kept his knife close, running up a corridor to see a door at the far end, seeing some guards in the way. The blue hedgehog regretted not bringing an extra gun with him, having left the others with his friends in the hopes of helping them and lightening his own load as well.

Still, he put on a brave face, seeing at least four guards stood outside of the door, each holding a type of machine gun that looked like it was military grade. Sonic made a firm mental note before moving forwards, looking around and finding some cover. He got on the opposite side of it, and saw a grate behind him. Low on options, Sonic took out his knife and held it by the blade, dragging the handle against the grating.

"The hell was that?" the guards asked.

"It's probably those fucking freelancers," said another one. "Let's get them!"

"That can't be them," said another guard. "There's still gunfire downstairs. I can hear it."

"Then whoever's there had better show up before we kill them!"

Sonic shook his head, turning the knife around and holding it the right way around. He looked around and saw a small crevice just to the side. He looked around a bit more, managing to find a good path there, hiding behind some blocks of rubble that had been left over.

"Huh," said one of the bad guys. "He's not here."

"Well, this is where the noise came from."

"I know that, smart-ass."

Sonic chuckled silently, turning his head to take another quick glance at his surroundings. He knew that he had to get rid of these four, but what to do? He looked around, then finally looked up at a hanging bit of scaffolding. He then looked past one of the guards and saw a small bit of cover. Quickly, Sonic rushed over to the small cover, being mindful that the others didn't turn around.

When the others started moving back to their post, Sonic was concerned, and looked to see them still turned slightly. One of the guards was close to him, and the blue hedgehog knew what he had to do. Carefully, he struck the knife against the ground, creating a dinging noise. That one guard heard it, walking over to inspect the source of the sound, but saw nothing... until he felt a small slice at the back of one of his legs, causing a grunt in pain. The other guards turned to see their fourth partner, only to see him being held up by Sonic with a knife to his throat.

"Drop them, or I drop him," Sonic warned.

"You brought a knife to a gunfight," laughed one of the guards. "So, you drop him and that little pig sticker, and we won't drop you."

"You're right," Sonic said, dropping his knife. "You won't drop me." He grabbed the sidearm from the guard he was holding, firing a warning shot into the air as he turned to his left, putting the gun against his hostage's temple. "Stay back!"

"You're not going to sneak around us just because you have a shield," said another guard as they circled.

"Once again, you're right," Sonic said, still pacing to his left. The guards moved to their right in retaliation, but Sonic just smirked. Quickly, he kicked his hostage to the other bad guys before aiming up and firing, causing the loose part of scaffolding to fall down. Pipes and frames fell and landed on the guards, crushing them under their weight.

"Nack really should have patched this place up better as opposed to just making it look less like shit," Sonic commented to himself, picking up the knife. He looked over at his gun as well, sighing and putting it in his holster. "Just in case," he told himself.

He walked over to the door that was being guarded, kicking it open and aiming inside to see a stairwell, with the next part upstairs blocked off. Sighing. Sonic went halfway down the stairs going lower, hopping up over the railing and jumping past the minor blockage before rushing up the stairs.

The staircases were long, despite the small amount of floors, and Sonic was soon at the top one, seeing another door at the end of it. He stuck to the side of it before pulling down on the handle to open the door itself, aiming his gun through the small opening before following behind his weapon.

He looked around and saw nothing but what looked like an empty space until he saw all of the doors, the last of which had Nack's name drawn on it in crude writing. Sonic chuckled at the makeshift style of things, knowing that, in some odd way, he could appreciate it as he'd done the same himself. He shook those thoughts off and stalked over to that last door, staying to the side and about to open the handle when a voice on the other side spoke.

"I could hear you from a mile away," Nack said. "Come on in, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog shook his head. "Not yet. Any weapons that you have, put them away. Maybe we can negotiate this without violence."

"No violence, huh?" Nack said. "You've been killing my men this whole time, and you're going to request that I negotiate in a civilised manner? What, just because your violence leads to a better cause, it's not as bad? You're still shedding blood, and you're still killing people."

"And you're selling better guns to your people to kill others, not to mention drugs, prostitution, and crossing borders," Sonic said. "We have a lot on you, weasel. And even then, we have a lot that we don't know. We just want to ask you some questions."

"You can ask me after you put your gun away," Nack said. "And whatever else you have with you."

"Will you do the same?" Sonic asked.

The purple weasel sighed from his side of the door, lowering his gun down to the ground and leaving it at his side before kicking it away. "I just did. When you open that door, you should see a gun on the ground close to you."

"All right, I'll keep it fair," Sonic said, tucking his knife into his body armour where it was out of place. "I'm going to open this door and drop my own gun, okay?"

Nack's footsteps were heard, and he opened the door to let Sonic in. "It's locked from that side. Now, stick to your end of the bargain."

Sonic nodded, showing his gun to Nack before putting it on the ground and shoving it aside with his shoe. "There. Now we're even."

Nack smiled. "Good."

He then shook his left arm, and something gleamed from his hand. Before Sonic could see it, a switchblade was making its way to his throat, but he dodged out of it, blocking another slashing attempt to his right side, using his arm to block Nack's wrist.

"Why couldn't we just negotiate?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we could have, but you just killed a lot of my men," Nack said. "That and the fact that you're a cop, and I'm a criminal. There's only one way that this ends, and spoiler alert: I'm going to fucking kill you."

Nack dropped his knife to his left hand and stabbed it into Sonic's stomach. The blue hedgehog grunted in pain, thankful that the body armour had softened the blow, but he still felt a slight sting from it. Sonic grabbed Nack's left arm with both of his, landing a headbutt on the weasel and knocking him back before taking off his body armour, seeing the small red stain on his shirt, courtesy of his new wound.

Sonic quickly grabbed his knife from his armour whilst Nack was still recovering, and Sonic turned to see the purple weasel standing up, wiping some blood from his lips before laughing, spitting out some blood as he did so.

"You... you want a fair fight?" Nack asked.

"I don't think that's unreasonable," Sonic said.

Nack chuckled. "You... you took your armour off, you kicked your gun over with mine... guess you want to kill me with no bullshit, huh?"

"I do want to kill you," Sonic admitted. "So badly. But now's not the time."

"I guess there are more ways than one to end this whole thing then, huh?" Nack said. "You know... I don't get you. You're just like every other cop that I know: You're in way too deep in a world that you aren't ready for."

"You think I'm in too deep?" Sonic asked. "I almost died. I almost got my friends killed. And it was all to chase your sorry ass. There aren't many lengths that I won't go to just to put an ass-hole like you in jail. Or in the grave."

Nack spat some more blood. "And there aren't many lengths that I won't go to to keep myself alive, as you saw earlier." He paused. "Still, if you do win this fight, don't go after the others."

"Why not?" Sonic asked. "You're well known for selling people out just to escape jail time. Why is now so different?"

"Because there'd be no point," Nack said. "Now is different because they're different people."

"They're still selling guns, drugs, and hookers," Sonic said. "They will be dealt with later."

"Why didn't you deal with them when you had the chance?" Nack asked. "You had plenty of opportunities to do that."

"Because that wasn't my main mission," Sonic said. "I was more focused on getting my friends out of this shit-hole."

"Then why are you here arguing with me?" Nack chuckled. "Congratulations! You completed your mission! Now go home."

"I'm here because you just became my new top priority," Sonic said.

"Aw," Nack sarcastically gushed. "I feel flattered."

The purple weasel then rushed to slice Sonic, but the hedgehog blocked it, slashing back with his own knife, but missing. Nack ducked under a second swipe to deliver a hard punch to the wounded spot on Sonic's torso, causing a wince of pain. Nack followed that up with a slicing attempt at Sonic's right arm, hoping to force him to drop the knife, but he just narrowly missed it.

Nack then moved to grab Sonic, hoping to push him against a wall, but Sonic held his own, bleeding aside. He managed to push back, feeling his implants kicking in and increasing the strength of his legs. With a grunt of exertion, Sonic pushed Nack back across the room, pushing the purple weasel over a table, who rolled backwards and landed on the ground on the other side, standing up and applauding.

"Very good work!" Nack laughed. "Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we have two firsts here today! First of those two is the fact that we have a cop enhanced with cybernetics! The second of those two firsts is that I get to kill my first cop who has been enhanced with cybernetics!"

Sonic growled and jumped over the table, sliding to deliver a kick to Nack's chest, causing him to back up. Sonic landed on the other side of the table, swiping at Nack, who weaved to his left and delivered a sharp reverse elbow to Sonic's back, causing their positions to be switched. Sonic turned quickly to avoid another strike by Nack, repaying the weasel with a kick to Nack's leg, sweeping him.

Sonic got on top of Nack and went to strike him, but Nack blocked it, grabbing Sonic's arm and lifting his legs up, going for an arm-bar. Sonic grunted in pain, feeling his arm tense up before rolling flat on his stomach. Nack still had the hold, but Sonic kept moving to his side, kicking out the legs of a nearby chair and causing it to land on Nack's head, making the purple weasel finally let go, allowing Sonic to stand back on his feet.

"Nice thinking with the chair." Nack got up also, a grin on his face. "A wound to your stomach, and a damaged arm. You want to quit yet?"

"Not to you," Sonic replied, grabbing his damaged arm and turning it until he heard a pop. "There. Now I just had a bloody torso. And a busted nose."

"Ah, you'll be fine," Nack said. "I'll make sure that the next one'll kill you."

Nack then moved again, faking a slash at Sonic before turning to the hilt side of the blade and bashing it against Sonic's temple. Sonic backed away after he was hit, holding the side of his head in agony before seeing Nack moving towards him again. Grunting, Sonic used a speedy dodge to evade Nack's next attack, countering with a kick to his gut before grabbing him in a guillotine hold, lifting the weasel up and tossing him onto his table... and then through it.

Nack, writhing in pain, slowly stood up, holding his back. "That'll leave a couple of splinters..."

"That was a nice looking table too," Sonic said.

"Yeah, well, no use crying over it."

Nack then turned quickly and kicked Sonic's side, but the blue hedgehog caught it. As he did, Nack switched his blade from his left hand to his right, but as he went to stab Sonic's head, the blue hedgehog lifted the weasel's leg up, causing him to stab his own ankle by mistake. Nack yelped in pain, putting his leg back on the ground, forced down on one knee as his ankle was bleeding. Still, Nack didn't quit, switching back to his other hand and attempting to slash Sonic again, who zipped to Nack's side and grabbed his right arm, bringing the forearm down onto his knee, causing Nack to drop his knife and groan in pain again.

"You arm will be fine," Sonic said, putting his knife to Nack's throat. "Your ankle too. The rest of your face... I don't know."

"Fucking do it..." Nack said, his arms spread, hands open wide. "Kill me... just kill me!"

"That'd just prove your point," Sonic said, feeling himself sag a bit. "I should kill you. That would stop your current run of being a criminal, and it would make the world a much easier place to live in." Sonic shook his head, pulling his knife from Nack's throat, leaving a little nick there that bled lightly. "But, no. We have too many questions to ask you, and you will answer all of them."

Nack sighed, his arms dropping to his sides. "Suit yourself..."

He then grabbed a small gun from his ankle holster, aiming to shoot at Sonic. But the blue hedgehog used his speed, getting around it quickly and grabbing Nack's left arm, twisted it a bit to make him drop his gun. Once again, Sonic didn't break the weasel's arm, but he did hurt it enough, even twisting more as he got behind Nack.

Sonic prepared his handcuffs when he heard some footsteps, turning to see his three friends and smiling. "Hey, guys. So... how'd it go down there?"

"Not bad," Knuckles said. "We all survived, so that's a good thing."

"What about him?" Shadow asked, pointing to Nack.

"Eh, I can think of something that I want to say, but since I'm not a cop, I dunno if I'm allowed to say it or not," Sonic shrugged.

"Just say it," Tails smirked. "You know you've wanted to for a long time."

Sonic grinned, turning back to Nack and putting the handcuffs on him. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. I would say that you have the right to an attorney, but given your habit for getting yourself out of court cases and given your rap sheet, that'd be pointless." Sonic stood up, pushing Nack over to the others. "Did it sound good?"

"You're a natural, kiddo," Tails joked.

Sonic grinned, pulling his phone out. "Hello, Green Hill Police Department? This is Sonic the hedgehog. I'd like to request a pickup from Westopolis. Oh, the name? Nack the weasel." He smiled widely. "All right. See you later." He turned to the others. "Well, we're about done here. Let's go home, boys."

The others didn't dare to disagree, more than happy to leave the prison, any criminals, and Westopolis itself behind. Still, with all of the questions in their minds, they knew that their job was far from over. And if that meant more bad guys to take out and more lives to save, then they were all more than happy to do it for as long as it took.

* * *

 **It's finally over! Goodness me, I am so glad to be finished! Well, okay, there is an epilogue chapter to come too, but that won't take nearly as long as this one did. I... I had a lot of fun writing this story. Sure, it took me a while, but I did enjoy it. And for those wondering, yes, there will be a sequel. But I have a lot of other stuff to take care of too before I get to that. That said, did you all enjoy this story? I sure hope so. I can't really think of much else to say except for take care and stay tuned.**


	35. Golden Opportunities

**Last time that I'll do this for this story, especially since this'll be a relatively short chapter as it's an epilogue. So... well, I can only hope that you've all enjoyed the actual story. This is the obvious sequel hook chapter, if the previous few weren't enough to go by. With that in mind, I don't have a whole hell of a lot to say. I'll see you at the bottom.**

* * *

Avery was stood at a podium in the main conference room of the Green Hill Police Department, wearing a fancier version of his usually fancy uniform. Attached to his podium was a wide array of microphones, and sat in front of him were all of those under his command as well as several reporters with passes, applauding not just the commander or his closest advisers on his right, but also the four gentlemen sat on seats at his left.

Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow all waved at the crowd, also wearing fancy uniforms, but with a different spin since they were still freelance. Sonic himself was smiling the widest. A couple of weeks ago, he and his friends started out as Green Hill cops. In that time, they'd lost their jobs, became free agents, and more importantly, they'd found and locked up Nack just a few days ago.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Avery said, the cameras on him broadcasting to the world, "welcome to Green Hill Police Department! I'm glad to have you all here, as today is a proud day indeed." He gestured to his left. "A few days ago, these four brave men risked it all to stop Nack the weasel. And, if I may, I'd like to invite their leader, Sonic, who selflessly went into Westopolis itself to save his friends."

The crowd applauded, as did those watching at home, which included the likes of Amy Rose, Rouge the bat, Sally Acorn, and many others. Sonic waved as he took centre stage, looking over everyone and shaking off what little nervousness was still in him.

"I... I don't know what to say," Sonic said. "So, I guess I'll start at the start." The crowd laughed, and he smiled at their reaction before continuing. "Well, you all know the main story already. Me and my friends were fresh graduates just out of Green Hill Police Academy, and we couldn't wait to start our first day on the job. On that same day, on patrol, we stopped a drug deal at a local garage. We followed those who got away, and we wound up at Star Light, and for anyone with a basic knowledge of jurisdiction, then you'd know that cops can't just hop from city to city."

A reporter raised her hand, and Sonic gestured at them. The reporter stood up. "Did the others follow you to Star Light of their own accord?"

"Yes, we did," Knuckles said, standing up. "Sonic gave us every out that he could think of, and we still went."

"So, you'd all risk your jobs if it meant helping your friend?" the reporter asked.

"We'd risk our jobs if it meant helping anyone," Tails said, joining the others. "The fact that Sonic is our friend and our leader is another factor, yes. But there's more to it."

Shadow stood and went to join the others as well. "He's right. On that night, those drug dealers had taken over a very nice restaurant and kidnapped some poor girls," Shadow said. "Suffice to say, we had our work cut out for us."

A male reporter stood up next. "So, you busted a drug deal, saved a restaurant, and rescued a bunch of girls all in the same night?"

"In the same hour and a half, if you want to get technical," Sonic joked. "But yes, we did that. And... and then..." He hesitated, his hands shaking. He felt some reassuring pats from the others, and nodded. "On our way back, we got in an accident. A bad one. We... we almost didn't make it."

"But thanks to the fine doctors of Green Hill," Tails interjected, "we weren't just repaired, but we were rebuilt too."

"Are you talking about the advancements in cybernetics?" asked another male reporter.

"You got it," Tails said.

"Could you... show us?" the reporter asked.

The crowd cheered at the suggestion, and Sonic turned to Avery, who shrugged and gave a thumbs up. Sonic grinned, turning to Shadow and whispering into his ear. Shadow grinned, looking past those sat on the right side and teleporting right behind them. The entire crowd spun their head from one side, cheering as Shadow teleported back on stage.

Sonic calmed the crowd down a bit before pointing to another reporter with her hand up, and she stood. "So... you were let go after the Star Light incident, yes?"

"That's true," Knuckles said. "But... look where we are as freelance agents. For the last couple of weeks, we've been backup for cops wherever they need us, and that backup usually results in us doing most of the work," he smirked.

The crowd laughed, the reporter included, before speaking again. "So, Sonic's plan on getting to Westopolis was risky. Did he give you guys an out then too?"

"Well, he didn't give us an out so much as he busted us out of Westopolis," Tails chuckled. "But, yeah. Every time that we do something major, he always asks if we're with him." Tails turned to face Sonic. "And the answer? Yes. Always."

Sonic smiled at his friend before turning back to the crowd. "Any further questions?"

When no reporters spoke up, Avery raised his hand. "I have one."

"Go ahead."

"Can I have my podium back now?" Avery asked. "You're kinda stealing my thunder here." The crowd laughed, as did Sonic and the others, waving a goodbye to everyone as they took their seats. Avery then took a breath, turning his head to the left and speaking up again. "Actually, I do have one more question for your four. Could you come up here, please?"

"Yes," Sonic said, standing with the others and joining Avery. "Was that the question?"

"No," Avery chuckled, reaching into his pocket. "My question is: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow..." He pulled out four G.H.P.D. badges, making the crowd gasp before he continued. "Will you rejoin Green Hill Police Department? Not just as cops, but as equals with everyone else on the force."

The four took their badges, looking over them and smiling before looking at each other. "Give us a second..." Knuckles said. Avery nodded, and the four got into a huddle, whispering back and forth inaudibly. After a few moments, they all nodded back to Avery.

"Well, it's quite the offer," Sonic said, handing his badge back. "But... we'll pass."

"Pass?" Avery asked. "You want to be freelancers forever?"

"To be blunt... yeah," Sonic said. "We loved being cops for as long as it lasted. But we know that we're better as freelance agents."

"Well... if you insist," Avery smiled. "I... I thought that I'd be angry at this, but I can't be. If you're still helping people, then do it."

"That's what we plan on," Sonic said. "Oh, and we do have one request."

"What is it?"

The blue hedgehog smiled. "Freedom to run our own operations anywhere that we want. If we catch wind of anything, we get to hunt it down. We'll still be backup when needed, but we get to do our own thing too."

Avery nodded. "I have no issue with that," he grinned. "I'm pretty sure that Ryker will be okay with it as well."

"Let's hope so."

Avery took a few further questions before the conference ended, and everyone was let back out, with the reporters leaving the premises and the cops going back to work. Among that glut of people were the four main heroes, who stopped by the reception desk so that Tails and Cosmo could share a heartwarming moment and another kiss. The two broke from it and blushed before waving goodbye, Tails joining the others as they headed to Knuckles' car.

"You know, guys," Knuckles started, "freelancers is a good name, but... we need an update."

"Hmm..." Shadow thought. "Freedom Fighters?"

"Not bad," Sonic said. "Short, simple, fits with the freedom thing, rolls off of the tongue well... I like it."

"I was thinking Dude-Itude," Knuckles added, "but that's more of a band name than anything."

"Huh," Tails said. "I liked that."

"Eh, we'll workshop it," Sonic smiled. He then pulled up his phone, showing the image from the docks mission. "We have a lot of questions to ask Nack, but this might be one of the more important ones."

Shadow nodded, looking at the picture. "Military hardware. Whoever had that knew where to take it so that they wouldn't get caught."

"Maybe Nack has more connections than we thought?" Tails suggested. "Not just in Westopolis. He did hop from place to place, after all."

"Yeah, but who?" Sonic asked. "We asked who we managed to find in Green Hill, and they only know about the deals in Green Hill."

"So, we've got no clue where to start in other places?" Knuckles sighed. "Great."

"We'll get there," Sonic assured. "We just need to squeeze whatever we can out of that weasel, even if it means a drop of blood or two."

"You know, for a nice guy, you're a pretty good bad cop," Tails chuckled.

"What can I say? I learned it at the academy," Sonic joked. He then got a call from Amy, answering it. "Hello?"

"Hey," Amy said. "You... you looked really good today."

"Thank you," Sonic smiled.

"So... you're going to remain a freelance agent?" Amy asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Being a cop is good, but we can help more people as free agents."

Amy giggled. "Well, mister free agent... I have a surprise for you. Rosy's working overtime today..."

Sonic grinned widely. "I'll be right over. I'll see you later."

"Later, sexy," Amy said, hanging up.

Sonic did the same before he turned to Knuckles. "So... can I get a quick detour to Amy's place?"

"You've got it, boss," Knuckles said drily.

"And don't you forget it," Sonic joked.

"Would you like some music as well?" Knuckles asked.

"Eh, why not," Sonic shrugged. "Hit me with some Andrew W.K."

"All hail the Party God!" Knuckles said, playing the artist's music.

They all smiled as they enjoyed their music, continuing their drive to the pink hedgehog's place. They had a lot to smile about: They were all still alive, they had caught one of Mobius' most dangerous criminals, and they had new jobs. But, more importantly, they knew that things were far from over. And with them being able to run their own missions now, who knew what trouble they were going to get in to?

* * *

 **And there you have it! The final final chapter of Cyber Riders! I know that it was a bit short, but at least it didn't take me as long to finish it, and... you know what? No. No. It took me way too damn long to finish the story. I can't just leave you on a cliffhanger as paltry as this one. So, I'll leave you on this cliffhanger instead. Enjoy.**

* * *

Manuel sighed as he drove up to the abandoned prison that Nack used to run, his eyebrows raised as he saw two other vehicles, both of which he recognised. He pulled up to park in front of the prison, killing the engine of his car and getting out to walk inside the building. As soon as he stepped in, he noticed two things: The first was that the room smelled of death and copper, and the second was the profiles of Lara and Beau, also looking over the violence.

"What the hell happened here?" Manuel asked as he walked forwards.

"It was those pricks who infiltrated our bases, no doubt," said Beau. "And here I was hoping that Nack's trap would work."

"That is why we were told to let them go and not chase them," Lara added. "Still... Nack should have brought more soldiers."

"Well, he can't do it now, because he's been caught," said Manuel. He went to one of the dead bodies, picking up the gun that they'd used and checking the magazine, seeing it empty. "Well, at least they got some good use out of these weapons. I'm just glad to see that they didn't go to waste."

"That's nice and all," Beau interjected, "but do you guys have any clue why we're here?"

"Nack said to meet after it was over, but to give it a few days, to be on the safe side," Manuel answered. "Those four only came to get him. So, us not chasing them worked in our favour."

"Maybe so," Lara said. "But Nack still got caught, and a lot of men are still dead."

"Men?" Manuel said. "These were just grunts who know how to shoot a gun. I'm not sad that they're dead. I'm just glad that my guns got used."

"Where'd Nack tell us to go when we got here again?" asked Beau.

"His office," Lara said. "You guys remember where it is, right?"

"Lead the way," Manuel said.

"So, that's a no," the tigress joked. "Follow me."

The other two nodded as the tigress led them upstairs, soon reaching the floor where Nack's main office was. They saw a few more dead bodies there, ignoring them as they went to Nack's office proper, thankful that it had been left open, not to mention untouched by the Westopolis police force.

They entered inside, and Lara sighed as she looked around. "The mess that men make..."

"Not as bad as it could have been," Manuel said. "There could be a dead body in here."

"And exactly which part of that sentence was meant to make me feel better?" Lara giggled.

Beau smirked a bit before heading to the actual office, peering behind the desk. He took the seat there, spinning around in it playfully before stopping again at the desk as the other two walked in, starting their own search around the office.

"This is where he said it'd be," Lara said.

Beau checked in the desk drawers for it, but couldn't find it. "Nothing here."

Manuel went to the bedroom, looking around Nack's bed. He lifted the mattress and, lodged between the mattress and one of the steel rungs that held the bed together, found what they were looking for. He picked it up and walked back to the others.

"Here it is," Manuel said, presenting a CD in a small plastic bag.

The bag had a note saying to play it on one side, and a note on the other for Nack's password. Beau put the disk into the computer, having turned it on earlier, and typed in the password to access it. He checked over the files and found the disk, clicking on it with the mouse. A video file opened up, and Beau clicked the "play" option.

Nack's face appeared on the screen, and he spoke as gunfire sounded outside. "Lara, Beau, and Manuel, if you are watching this, then it means that I'm either dead or have been captured. I knew that this was going to happen. It turns out that you can only last so long against such persistent people." He chuckled. "But this isn't the time for making light of things. There has been more money sent to your accounts as I'm speaking, along with free passes to get you into any city. Martin worked very hard on getting those authenticated, so make sure that you thank him. As for the safety of you three... well, I won't say anything about you. At all. But I can't promise that you won't get found out. For that reason, any deals that you make, even in Westopolis... be careful. You're not exactly living in the world's best example of trust and understanding. And most importantly, whatever you do, do not, I repeat, DO NOT try to save me. I'll be fine as I am." He paused as more gunfire sounded off outside. "Shit... I only have so much time. Take care of yourselves, and follow what I just said. Every last word." He pulled out a gun. "I've... I have to go. Thank you all. I'll see you when I see you."

The video then ended, and Beau ejected the disk, putting it back into its bag. "We need to keep this safe."

"Check how much money we have," said Manuel.

Beau nodded, looking up the account of Nack, seeing the money being sent out and whistling. "Phew... that is a lot of money indeed."

"It's more than enough," Lara said. "We have to do Nack right."

"We will," Manuel said. "For now, let's go home. We've got a lot of work to do."

The others nodded, and Beau turned the computer off, making sure to take the disk with him. As the three headed back to their own bases, they all wondered what was going to happen next. Not just for Westopolis, and not just for themselves, but for Nack as well.

* * *

 **There we go! That's a much better cliffhanger, don't you think? I agree! Anyway, the story is now officially over. And I mentioned a sequel last time, right? Well, now I'd like to announce the title! I don't exactly know when, but Cyber Riders: The Black Market will be here at some point in the near future. I'll see you in my next piece of work. Take care, and stay tuned for the next one.**


End file.
